Sigmund Freud has been the most controversial psychologist of all time however his work led to the discovery of many psychological disorders and he is till today considered one of the most influential psychologists of all time. Freud steered up a lot of steaming and controversial debate because all of the theories he proposed revolved around sex and aggression, which was considered taboo and supressed during his day and age “The Victorian Era.”
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality explains that personality is composed of 3 parts the Id, the Ego, and the Superego that works together to create unique complex human behaviours. Firstly the id is driven by the pleasure principle; it seeks immediate gratification of animalistic instincts such as sex, aggression, hunger etc. The egos role is to delay the gratification of id in deciding a correct time and place. The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. It however cannot delay gratification for long and that is when the super-ego comes into play. The Super-ego is the deciding principle which takes into account societal norms in other words it decides on situations based on what is considered acceptable by society. The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society our sense of right and wrong. In the movie Strangers on a train we as viewers can link Freud’s psychoanalytic concept with different characters of the movie. Strangers on a train can be classified as a Freudian movie as there were many aspects of sex aggression and many pleasure gratification longings which are not accepted by the general public. The main actors in this film were Farley Granger who was the protagonist and whose role was Guy Haines and Robert Walker the antagonist named Bruno Anthony.
In the starting first scene of the movie we can see aspects of Freud’s psychoanalytical components the “Id” and the “superego”. We as viewers realize in an instant that Bruno Antony is all about the id and does not consider what is right and acceptable by society; in the first seen for example he seeks immediate pleasure gratification by asking Guy Haines immediate and inappropriate questions about his personal life such as asking him about his new girlfriend and about divorcing his wife. Bruno’s aspects of the Id are magnified when he says “I have a theory that you should do everything before you die”, that was a clear exhibition of the pleasure principle. He further on explains how he dislikes his father and wants him dead and how Guy might also want to kill his wife to get rid of his troubles another indicator of the id; he then comes up with a perfect murder plan in which a criss-cross would take place whereby Guy would kill his father and he would kill Guys wife Miriam. The greatest example of the id is shown in the movie when Bruno murders Miriam by strangling her until she was completely out of breath; he only thought about his own desires and did not have empathy and mercy for her. We can as viewers realize here that Alfred Hitchcock magnified the psychoanalytic component Id in Bruno’s character which constantly seeks pleasure gratification without considering the negative impacts it would bring to society and him-self. Mirriam who was Guys wife also showed aspects of Id when as she cheated on him firstly and denies a divorce as she wants to gratify her pleasures by still being married to a famous tennis star which has lots of money and materialistic possessions. She then could also indulge in fame and stardom which is a yearning of the id.
The component Superego of the psychoanalytical theory is clearly shown in Guy Haines throughout the movie. As said earlier, Superego is the decision principle which decides on actions based on societal norms. It holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from parents and society, our sense of right and wrong. Guy Haines is all about the superego; he is a public figure, a famous tennis star dating the senator’s daughter therefore he has to think about societal norms and he too must have been raised in a family with a high standard of morals and ideals. The superego in guy firstly arose in the movie when he met Bruno in the train. Bruno was bombing Guy with all sorts of inappropriate questions and was totally violating Guy’s personal life; however Guy still did not lose his cool and confronted Bruno in a subtle manner. Here we can see that Guy did not react to the pleasure principle Id which in Freud’s terms is mainly sex and aggression however he kept his composure and thought of society and the impact of placing aggression on Bruno. Another example of Guys superego coming into play when Bruno comes up with a plan to murder Miriam; although Guy hates his wife and he knows his life would be much better without her, he still strongly holds his morals and values and quickly neglected the idea. He thought about the negative impacts of killing someone and what it would do to him and the society.
Another very important theory brought about by Freud is the psychosexual development stage which consists of 4 stages the oral, anal, phallic and gentile stage which we all experience during a child. He believed that personality develops through these childhood stages. If all the psychosexual stages are successful a healthy personality will form as an adult however if there is a fixation in one or two stages problems will occur later in adulthood. A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain “stuck” in this stage. According to Freud the oral stage is the stage when infant’s focuses pleasures on oral activities such as sucking their mother’s breast and constantly putting things in their mouth a fixation in this stage can cause problems in the adult life. Bruno most probably had a fixation in the oral stage as he constantly is putting things in his mouth like smoking and also drinking alcohol; he constantly focuses on oral pleasures. Similarly Miriam might also have had problems in this stage as she is constantly using her mouth talking seducing and flirting with men. There are scenes also where she sucks a lollipop, eats a cotton candy and even a hot dog, all of which were very sexual, subconsciously she is trying to satisfy her id by fixating on oral pleasures which resemble phallic images for example the hot dog “penis”… Feud explains the anal stage is when infants are taught toilet training by their parents and when they are taught self-control by controlling their bowel movements. Anne Morton (Guys Girlfriend) developed successfully in this stage as she is always in control and keeps her composure in dreadful situations for example when she found out her boyfriend’s problem she kept calm and control of the situation by helping him resolve the issue. Freud explains the phallic stage is when infants develop a liking for the opposite sex parent, this stage can also be called the oedipal complex stage. In this stage the children are also jealous of the same-sex parent. I believe that Bruno did not develop successfully in this stage which caused him future emotional problem; for instance he hates his father with a passion, so much that he wants him dead. He also has a passionate liking and fixation for his mother for example he constantly wears the tie she gave him and letting her do his nails with affections that is more than just a mother son relationship
I personally felt that Alfred Hitchcock did a marvellous job in Strangers in at train. I personally have seen many movies that I can link with Freudian theories; however this movies link with Freudian theories was very deep and made the viewer’s think alternate reasons to why each character has its distinctive personality traits.
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