In my previous semester, my groupmates and I did a presentation on 'The Shining' for Film Theory.
Now, I would like to share it with you.
Sigmund Freud:
Father of psychoanalysis
Believes that everyone has a conscious & unconscious mind
He uses the ID, Ego & Superego
Conscious Mind:
This state of mind appears when we're sober, affecting our behavior, thoughts, and feelings. When we're in this state of mind, we're able to make decisions.
Unconscious Mind:
It is biologically based on our instincts where it is uncontrollable.
It often contains disturbing thoughts.
ID, Ego & Superego
ID: Represents the devil in us, where it contains our deepest desires. It's part of the unconscious mind to satisfy our instincts and it innates personality. Hence, we tend to create a reaction according to the pleasure principle.
EGO: It's known as the 'referee' where it balances the ID and Superego and it's part of the conscious mind in order to help us make rational decisions. It also balances our desires and society's moral values.
Superego: Also known as the angel in us, where it is dominated by moral principles and forces us to comply with social ethics and rules.
Freud's Theory in the Film:
The dreams were analyzed by using the "ID" concept as it might be a "satisfaction of desire". Hence, the unconscious mind is enlarged.
ID: Jack's drinking problem, sexual desire, and wanting to kill his family.
Ego: Wendy.
She was trying to be rational about everything and trying to support and hold her family together.
She also tried to protect her son, Danny from Jack's abusive behavior.
Superego: Danny
He tries to do the 'right' thing by following Tony's guidance and uses his "shinning" ability to do the right thing.
The filmmaker used the hotel, snowstorm, and maze to display his dream analysis.
The enormous empty hotel was used to represent loneliness, the snowstorm to show how there will be no more warmth. Whereas the maze was used to represent how Jack has gone insane and has lost his mind.
For his subconscious desire, he described the hotel as a good place to stay. However, it was later used to portray negative emotions when the hotel was hit by a snowstorm. Moreover, he also showed how the ID is stronger than the Superego and Ego by showing how strong-willed is Jack to kill his family.
Lacan Theory:
Lacan uses the Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real for his psychoanalysis.
Symbolic: Representation of society's law, politics, religion, all traditions to influence the ideal self.
In the film, we can see how Jack tries to be a "good father" because of religion. Whereas in reality, he wants to kill his family. In addition to that, society says that men must be successful, and divorce is not encouraged by family and religion because women must think of their children.
Good Father
His Desire (ID)
The Imaginary: A sense of self-identity in their imagination. For example, imagine a desperate wannabe model daydreams of themselves becoming a supermodel, but in reality, they're still struggling.
In the film, Jack's imaginary self is a good father and a successful writer. Whereas in reality, he is an abusive person with a drinking problem and a failed writer.
The Real: The feeling of completeness.
In the film, Jack died in the maze to show his completion of living in the hotel for so long.
References:
Lapsley, D. K., & Stey, P. C. (2011). Id, ego, and superego. Encyclopedia of human behavior, 1-9. Courtney, E. A. (2018). Psychoanalysis: A Brief History of Freud ’ s Psychoanalytic Theory [2019]. [online] Available at: https://positivepsychology.com/psychoanalysis/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2020]. Felluga, D. (2020). Introduction to Jacques Lacan, Module on the Structure of the Psyche. [online] Available at: https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacanstructure.html [Accessed 20 Oct. 2020]. Yansori, A. (2016). Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis. [online] Psychoanalyzadnes.cz. Available at: http://psychoanalyzadnes.cz/2016/12/12/introduction-to-lacanian-psychoanalysis/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2020].
Johnston, A. (2013). Jacques Lacan (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Stanford.edu. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lacan/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020]. Armey, M. (2003). Psychoanalysis Today. [online] Available at: http://personal.kent.edu/~ marmey/perssum03/Chapter2-6.pdf. Nick Rennison The Pocket Essential FREUD & PSYCHOANALYSIS www.pocketessentials.com. (n.d.). [online] Available at: http://www.psicopolis.com/psicopedia/SFreudpsychoanalysis.pdf.
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