When talking about psychoanalysis, one cannot fail to talk about the theory of the late psychoanalysis master Sigmund Freud: his contribution to psychoanalysis is unmatched, and it is difficult for anyone to bypass it. His work uses psychoanalysis. In fact, the psychoanalytic knowledge used by the director Hitchcault when filming "Doctor Edward" is mainly derived from Freud's works. I used the only two Freud’s books on hand-"Introduction to Psychoanalysis" and "The Psychopathology of Daily Life"-to find a theoretical framework that I thought could analyze the film "Doctor Edward" (maybe not Fully and comprehensively include the psychoanalytic theory in the movie), and then proceed from these theoretical frameworks to analyze the movie in combination with the plot of "Doctor Edward".
Theoretical framework
1. Human consciousness system. In Freud's view, the human consciousness system is hierarchical: it is composed of three parts: subconscious, preconscious and conscious. "Subconsciousness refers to unconscious and totally unconscious mental activities. It is thoughts that are lurking under consciousness, and its meaning is equivalent to the hidden intentions behind negligent behaviors such as forgetting." (From "Introduction to Psychoanalysis") The preconsciousness is in consciousness. Between the subconscious and the subconscious, it is responsible for the task of "inspector", and the subconscious instincts and desires are not allowed to invade into the consciousness. However, when the current consciousness loses its vigilance, sometimes suppressed instincts or desires will infiltrate the consciousness circuitously through disguise. Consciousness is self-consciousness. Any mental activity that one can perceive is consciousness. It belongs to the surface layer of human psychological structure. It perceives the external reality and stimuli, and uses language to reflect and summarize the rational content of things.
2. Dreams. Dreams are essentially the satisfaction of wishes and the experience of hallucinations. Dream has a checking mechanism for the subconscious, but it is also a symbol of subconscious desire. There are some unethical desires in the human subconscious. These desires are suppressed by the consciousness when the person is awake. When the person sleeps, the consciousness still works, but the subconscious often enters the consciousness through disguise, so that the desire can be released. . Because dreams are disguised, dreams have "obvious" and "hidden" meanings. There are several kinds of relations between "explicit meaning" and "concealed meaning": 1. Part replaces the whole; 2. Metaphor; 3. Imagery (abstract thought is transformed into a substitute image in the obvious meaning to achieve the purpose of concealment); 4. Symbols (the obvious elements of dreams are hidden symbols)
3. The analysis of dreams. "The elements of dreams are not important in themselves. They are not the original thoughts of the dreamer, but just a substitute." (Excerpted from "Introduction to Psychoanalysis") Using the free association of dream elements is to substitute concepts into consciousness. From these concepts, we deduce the original intention hidden behind the scenes, that is, the subconscious mind. For example:
"A woman said that when she was a child, she often dreamed of God wearing a pointed paper hat. On the surface, this dream was meaningless. However, when she asked her to make further associations, she said that she was a little girl at the time, often eating She wears a hat at time to see if there is more food on her brother and sister’s plate, so it seems that this dream is no longer ridiculous...There are two important elements in the dream: the hat and God. The purpose of the hat It is covering, she wants to hide her peeking behavior; and God represents omniscience and omnipotence. The meaning of this dream is probably: even if they deceive me, I am as omniscient as God is. "On")
"When interpreting dreams, we often encounter a kind of resistance. This resistance comes from rational criticism and has nothing to do with the dreamer’s belief. Although this resistance is groundless, it is stubborn and can inhibit people’s free associations” ( (From "Introduction to Psychoanalysis")
Fourth, obscured memory. "The trivial memories of childhood exist as a result of the'transfer effect'. They are substitutes for other very important impressions when recalling. The memories of these important impressions can be triggered from trivial impressions through psychoanalysis. But a kind of "impedance" prevents them from being remembered directly. Trivial memories are preserved not because of their content itself, but because of their content and another repressed thought There is a connection between them, and they are called'masked memories'." (From "The Psychopathology of Daily Life")
5. The forgetting of impressions and determination. "Forgetting is a selective behavior." "'Forgetting' has motives that can be found, and these motives are usually unpleasant things." "People have to use the fundamental defense force of'resistance' to suppress painful feelings. Emergence. Just like the avoidance reflex after painful stimulation that is common in physiology." "Some things are forgotten for their own sake. Sometimes the defensive tendency shifts its goal, causing the forgetting of other things-some Unimportant things, originally irrelevant but unfortunately associated with that matter, and therefore no longer remember." (From "The Psychopathology of Daily Life")
Psychoanalysis of the film
Watching the movie "Doctor Edward" with the above-mentioned Freudian theory of psychoanalysis, we can easily find that the organization of the main storyline of "Doctor Edward" and the psychoanalytic theory are inseparable, and we can even say It is the theory of psychoanalysis that organizes the storyline of the movie. According to the narrative sequence of the movie, we can divide the movie into the following parts: A. Green Manas Psychiatric Sanatorium, the dean of Dr. Murchison is about to retire, the new dean of Dr. Edward will take office, and the young and beautiful female doctor Constance Love at first sight; B. Constance discovered that Edward was an impostor with a mental illness. Because he suffers from amnesia, he doesn't even know who he is, and he even concludes that he is the murderer of Dr. Edward. Dean Murchison also used psychoanalysis to confirm this; C. Fake Edward fled the nursing home under the pseudonym John Brown, and lived in the Empire Hotel in New York. Constance found Brown, escaped the police, and went to Kang. The home of Stance’s teacher, Professor Brunov; D, Professor Brunov, psychoanalyzed John Brown’s dream; E. The police appeared and took away John Brown, and Constance psychoanalyzed John Brown and found the true Murchison’s murderer, Doctor Murchison, felt dead and committed suicide with a pistol. But the director simply put these five parts together, I think the audience will be confused by the development of the whole plot. In fact, the organization of the film plot by psychoanalysis theory lies in the fact that it constitutes a clue: This clue is three questions in the three parts of the film in the film A, B, and C: "Why did the fake Dr. Edward see the white? I would feel a headache if I get along with the lines?", "Why did the fake Dr. Edward think he killed the real Dr. Edward?" and "Why did he pretend to be Dr. Edward?" These three questions are to arouse the audience’s interest and thinking. Keep their eyes on the screen and carefully follow the development of the film's plot; the clues in the D and E parts of the film are a memory (fake Dr. Edward) and a dream (fake Dr. Edward). "Memory" and "Dreamland" are the keys to the first three questions, and they are also the most important part of the whole film. Through the psychoanalysis of them, all the questions can be answered, and the context of the whole film can be cleared.
Analysis of "memory". The fake Dr. Edward, John Brown, slid down the handrail of the stairs in front of his house when he was a child, kicked his brother who was sitting at the bottom of the handrail, and his brother was stabbed to death by the railing in front of the handrail. This manslaughter caused a heavy psychological burden on the young John Brown. In order to escape the psychological burden, his subconscious mind selectively forgot the incident that he hurt his brother. But when he was an adult, when he was skiing in a snowy mountain once, Dr. Edward rolled off his side. This action was very similar to the action of John Brown’s brother slipping from the armrest. It became "John Brown killed brother by mistake." The obscured memory of this memory. As a result, John Brown mistakenly thought that he had killed Dr. Edward, in order to comfort himself, that is, pretending that Dr. Edward was not dead, he himself pretended to be Dr. Edward. Because Dr. Edward died on the ski slope, the white snow and pistes became important elements of John Brown’s painful memory, so he subconsciously chose to forget these two things when he saw the white sheets or the lines on the sheets At time (similar to the moral lines of skiing), these things became obscured memories of "Dr. Edward's death", reminding John Brown of "Dr. Edward's death", and even made him feel a headache.
Analysis of "Dreamland". The main content of John Brown’s dream is: In a restaurant with eyes on the walls, John Brown himself is playing cards with a man with a long beard. The game is not over yet, a masked man is right. The bearded man said it was over. Then on the roof of a big house, the bearded man was pushed off the roof by the masked man. The masked man held a carriage wheel in his hand. Finally, John Brown was chased by the shadow of a large wing. The bearded man in the dream is Doctor Edward. The shadow of the big wings chasing John Brown is the symbol of the Archangel Valley (because angels have wings). The masked man is Dr. Murchison, the director of the Green Manas Psychiatric Sanatorium, who is about to retire. The masked man said to Dr. Edward, who had not ended the game, that the end of the game symbolized the existence of a dispute between the two. The wagon wheel held by the masked man symbolizes the revolver. Combining the "hidden meaning" of these dreams together, the conclusion is that Dr. Murchison, the dean of the Green Manas Psychiatric Sanatorium, who is about to retire, had a dispute with Dr. Edward in the restaurant because he was jealous of the young Dr. Edward replacing him. And killed Dr. Edward with a pistol on the snow-capped mountain.
Final words
The film director Hitchcault combined Freud's psychoanalytic theory with his masterful suspense movies. It can be said that he was undoubtedly outstanding in his time.
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