looking for the answers
12 May 2003 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimorenein spellbound, the hitchcock movie starring gregory peck (or am i crazy?) and ingrid bergman (sure about that one), there's a lot of awkward (but necessary) background explication about the freudian theory of psychology, including an oversimplified hollywood version of the neurosis.
therapy, we learn, is the process of the therapist needling the patient through self-revelations (in the movie, they talk about buried memories, but they're also talking about suppressing the memory of committing murder, so i think it's safe to water it down a little). the patient must talk and think about it until they get to the root of whatever event in her past has caused the 'complex.' the complex, being irrational, will collapse on exposure to the light of day and the patient will be 'cured.' that's the theory.
gregory peck bumped his little brother, who fell and died, when they were kids, so he has a guilt complex which causes him to irrationally believe he's responsible for deaths he has had nothing to do with, and then do stuff like go into hiding.
this freudian theory of complexes is alive and well in romance fiction and in slash fiction, where many of the finer traditions of the harlequin are preserved. in the world of slash, a fear of commitment stems from a painful relationship or a childhood without friendship, and can be vanquished when the aggressive character shakes the wounded's shoulders, or kisses him, or tells him a little moral story. enlightenment comes like a lightning bolt; the walls crumble; the character is cured. everyone lives happily ever after. it's a matter of debate, i'm sure, whether this can ever be satisfying or not, but it's absolutely clear that that's not how people work in real life.
therapy, we learn, is the process of the therapist needling the patient through self-revelations (in the movie, they talk about buried memories, but they're also talking about suppressing the memory of committing murder, so i think it's safe to water it down a little). the patient must talk and think about it until they get to the root of whatever event in her past has caused the 'complex.' the complex, being irrational, will collapse on exposure to the light of day and the patient will be 'cured.' that's the theory.
gregory peck bumped his little brother, who fell and died, when they were kids, so he has a guilt complex which causes him to irrationally believe he's responsible for deaths he has had nothing to do with, and then do stuff like go into hiding.
this freudian theory of complexes is alive and well in romance fiction and in slash fiction, where many of the finer traditions of the harlequin are preserved. in the world of slash, a fear of commitment stems from a painful relationship or a childhood without friendship, and can be vanquished when the aggressive character shakes the wounded's shoulders, or kisses him, or tells him a little moral story. enlightenment comes like a lightning bolt; the walls crumble; the character is cured. everyone lives happily ever after. it's a matter of debate, i'm sure, whether this can ever be satisfying or not, but it's absolutely clear that that's not how people work in real life.
