Fluid Subjectivity and Psychoanalysis Reconsidered: Affects in Schizo-Cinema

• Main Authors: Mei-Chun Rao, 饒美君
• Other Authors: Ming-Hung Tu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63736357249000972663

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 101 === In this thesis, psychoanalytic way of reading conflicts, such as anxiety, trauma and repression which characters have been encountering in the three "schizo-cinematic" films, Inception, Memento and Shutter Island will be carefully dealt with to seek a schizoanalytic space where main characters can coexist with their own mental conflicts. In Chapter One, the concept of the instability is the main structure. On the basis of this structure, Inception is closely read through psychoanalytic perspectives from Sigmund Freud''s "Project for a Scientific Psychology", Interpretation of Dreams, Christian Metz''s The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema to Paul Ricoeur''s Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation. During the discussion, Freud''s idea of flowing neurons in “Project for a Scientific Psychology” and his dreams theories prove to resonate with chaotic situations in the dream world of Inception. However, his implications of repression mechanism in dream theories provokes further meditation if Cobb''s dreams reveal his repression of Mal or the reconstruction of Mal. Meanwhile, the connection between films and dreams in Metz''s theories not only highlights the blurry distinctions between watching films and making dreams, but also makes films stand out as particular medium within the reconsideration of characters''conflicts and struggles. Ricoeur''s supplementary re-examination about the concept of interpretation once helps reconsider insufficiencies in Freud''s dream theories. In Chapter Two, the psychoanalytic reading of characters'' memories and anxiety is cautiously reconsidered through the concepts of affects from Freud and Deleuze. Both concepts of affects proved to be strong forces upon characters approve Freud''s contribution in psychoanalysis and reveal the close link between psychoanalysis and Deleuzian tendency to revision of psychoanalysis. Meanwhile, Deleuze''s film concepts, such as the perception-image in Cinema 1: the Movement-Image is discussed along with Cobb''s anxiety and memories about Mal to provide Cobb with an option to coexist with his anxiety and memories. In addition, Freud''s proposition about the compulsion to repeat in Beyond the Pleasure Principle helps complete the process of psychoanalytic revision with both cases of Cobb in Inception and Leonard in Memento. In Chapter Three, Deleuze and Guattari''s concept of schizophrenia in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia is the main theoretical framework to re-read Teddy''s madness in Shutter Island. Inspired by the concept of the schizophrenia in Anti-Oedipus, where the term of schizophrenia deemed as schizoanalysis, I relate the schizophrenic idea to two conflicting forces in Teddy and his alternate identity, Laeddis. In addition to the two schizophrenic forces in Teddy, the desiring-machine, another concept from Anti-Oedipus, is seen as the social intervention that might be ignored by psychoanalytic reading. In Conclusion, the breakthroughs and characteristics of schizo-cinema are emphasized in details particularly through two chapters, "Peaks of present and sheets of past: fourth commentary on Bergson" and "The powers of the false" from Deleuze''s Cinema 2: the Time-Image to explore possible outlets that might provide characters'' own anxiety, traumatic memories and repetition with different interpretations from psychoanalysis. Instead of eliminating or denying those conflicts, characters might choose to coexist with their own struggles.