Batman Begins [With the Development of his Superego]

Movies and Psychoanalysis

(This analysis is based on one version of the script, which is slightly different from the movie, and the film itself).

     Psychoanalysis can, sometimes, be seen as a great tool used in a variety of fields. For individuals unfamiliar with its purpose and methods, psychoanalysis tends to be recognized as a form of therapy that deals with dream interpretation. However, psychoanalysis can be so much more and this is evident in the range of book titles that use it as a means of investigation (i. e. Psychoanalysis and feminism, Psychoanalysis and religion, Psychoanalysis and art, etc.). This plethora of combinations leads us to question the purpose of psychoanalysis.

     Well, the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association, Mark Solms, hits the nail on the head with his answer. He stated during an interview, "I think what psychoanalysis does ... is so easily overcomplicated... at the heart of the matter ... is to enable a patient to face the facts of their life" (1). In other words, it aids with the search for truth, which is why it pairs so well with other fields. With the lenses of psychoanalysis, it is possible to look at other fields such as literature, history, politics, or in this case, cinema.

     In this series, "Movies and Psychoanalysis," psychoanalysis will be used to explore films and what they can tell us about the human experience. Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, argued that there are constant unconscious expressions that manifest in different ways, such as slips of the tongue, forgetting names, dreams, etc., which can reveal the mechanisms of our mental apparatus. He stated, "He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.” This makes it obvious why the analyses of texts have been used to understand the human mind. It is because they are expressions of the authors that, when analyzed carefully, tell us about the human experience. And now we are about to do the same, but with films instead. In this post, we will use the movie, "Batman Begins," in order to understand the development of the Superego.

     In order to begin the analysis, we have to cover some basic terminology. Freud's tripartite model of the mind consists of three structures: the id, the ego, and the superego. The first structure functions under the pleasure principle and it is the only part, in this model of the mind, that is innate. In other words, the moment individuals are born, they start seeking things that create pleasure, which tend to be beneficial to a certain extent. For example, babies cry when they want to be fed, when they want to be carried, when they are too cold or too hot, when they are scared, etc. In order to satisfy these desires, parents provide what creates pleasure in the babies. If this is analyzed with attention, it appears as if all of these attributes have an evolutionary advantage.

     The second structure, the ego, works under the reality principle. This means that this layer of the mind is trying to satisfy the desires of the id, but it takes into account the external world. The superego is in charge of reminding the ego the rules that should not be broken. They can be political, religious, moral, etc. For example, if we would observe a kid, without a developed superego, that finds a cookie that belongs to someone else, he would instantly eat it. However, since he did not ask for it, he could be reprimanded. Additionally, a kid that has both his ego and his id developed would enter into a mental conflict. The id wants to eat it immediately, but the ego knows the person could get caught, so what might happen is that the kid might grab the cookie and hide it when nobody is looking in order to eat it later. If this happens, it would mean that the desire of the id was fulfilled, but in the journey of satisfying this wish, the ego took into account the aspect of reality in order not to be reprimanded. Finally, an individual with all three structures fully developed would ask for the cookie because the id's drive would be to seek to eat it, the ego knows he cannot eat it immediately, and the superego knows that stealing is not morally right. In other words, the ego decides what course of action to take based on the rules of the superego in order to satisfy the desire of the id. Obviously, there are caveats and Freud's meta-psychology is much more complex, but for the sake of simplicity, let us accept this model as is and continue.

     Now, there is another concept that should be covered and this is the Oedipus complex. Freud asserted that male children made their mom their first love interest while being jealous of the father since they attract the attention of the mother. He named it after the play, "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles. In this play, a King receives a prophecy that his child was going to kill him and marry his wife. Long story short, his son unknowingly fulfills the prophecy and when he discovers what he has done he takes his eyes out. Freud didn't include the latter in the complex. Instead, he added that children come to an age when they discover that males have penises and females don't. Moreover, since they have a negative attitude towards their father because of their jealousy, they think that their father is the one that castrates female children. Therefore, male children go through something called castration complex, which is when they fear that their father might chop their genitals. The moment they understand this is not going to happen, they have solved the Oedipus complex in one way. In the end, the love for their mom is transferred to someone else, they become friends with their dad and learn from him what should and should not be done. This is when the superego is developed. This solution is the most common one, but not the only one; there are different ways in which the Oedipus complex can be solved.

Movie Analysis

      We are introduced to the characters when they are kids. Bruce Wayne, the main character, is shown the head of an arrow by his best friend Rachel. He then steals it, making it evident that he doesn’t have a developed superego yet. This also suggests the point of the Oedipus complex in which he is in. Currently, he is attracted to his mother and competes for her attention with his father. This stage is represented metaphorically in the next scene where Bruce falls into a yonic symbol, a well, that can represent Bruce’s unconscious falling for his mom. Additionally, his father coming into the well to carry him out and blocking the entrance suggests that he shouldn’t be there and blocks future attempts of doing it again.

After we are introduced to the characters from the movie, the scene takes the viewer into the present where Bruce still does not have a fully formed superego. In a parallel to the previous scene in his childhood, Bruce is in jail for stealing, which reinforces the idea of an undeveloped superego. Later, Bruce is placed in solitary where he meets Ra's Al Ghul, who will be an unintentional attempt at becoming the substitute of Bruce's father. Once, Ra’s Al Ghul starts to spew his ideological point of view, the script literally states that Wayne doesn’t do anything else besides nod and accept what he is saying. Thus, suggesting that this is when Bruce's identification and acceptance of a father's figure ideology starts.

     In the next scene, Wayne is asked, “What do you fear?” This is when we will introduce two new Freudian concepts, which are the phallic and yonic symbols. The signified of the former is a penis and of the latter a vagina. The phallic symbol is represented by any object whose length exceeds its diameter, and the yonic symbols by any concave object. Then, the sex act can be represented by the phallic symbol entering the yonic one. An example of this would be a train entering a tunnel. The proposed claimed would be that the bats in this movie are phallic symbols and the cave a yonic one. To be more precise, the bat represents Bruce’s genitals and the cave his mother’s genitals. This is when we back to that scene where Bruce is asked the question of what he fears, which is when we see one of his memories. This is when he enters by accident the cave. The entrance to the cave was blocked (a symbol representing that he wasn’t supposed to be there; a forbidden entryway), which could mean that the fear of bats and of entering the cave was only a repressed and distorted thought of the realization that he had a sexual attraction towards his mother (making a reference to the Oedipus complex). Like mentioned before, the father is seen as competition for the mother and the goal of said competition would be to enter the “cave.” Once Bruce is inside the cave, we see his father descending into it as another phallic symbol, because of the rope used, that comes with the sole purpose of removing his son from there. After taking Bruce out, he blocks the entrance again and tells Bruce not to go in there again. We can also listen to some of the teachings that would aid in the development of his superego: “Why do we fall, Bruce? So, we can pick ourselves up.” In the movie, this line is given by the father. However, in an earlier version of the script, this line is not given by Thomas, but by who would ultimately become his father figure, Alfred.

     When the movie starts, Bruce Wayne is at the late stage of the Oedipus complex. The attention is not on the mother, but rather on the father. The attention placed on the father and not on the mother can be seen by the number of times their names are mentioned in the script. Martha's name is in the script eleven times and she only speaks twice. In fact, even when she addresses Bruce, he doesn't answer back. On the other hand, Thomas' name is in the script 49 times and he speaks 18 times. And, again, the conversations he has with his son corresponds to what Freud described would help form his sense of morality. For example, Thomas tells his son "Your great-grandfather built the first trains in Gotham. The city’s been good to our family- it was time to give something back...". In this example, he is telling him that it is important to give things back, to help others. Moreover, we later see another phallic symbol, which is the Wayne Tower. In the script, there is a scene, which was not included in the movie, that states that Thomas drew a circle on the window, signaling the city, then in the middle a dot that represents the tower (a phallic symbol in the center of a yonic one).

     Let’s introduce one more concept, that of displacing the feeling towards a subject/object into another subject/object. In this case, I’m arguing that the city of Gotham represents Bruce’s mother and that he has engaged in the mechanism mentioned above. After Bruce’s parents are killed, characters refer to Gotham as if it was almost a person. The first time, it occurs after the murder, when Ra’s Al Ghul states that the city is beyond saving and must be allowed to die. This could be interpreted as if he was alluding to the death of his parents. In other words, forget them, what they taught you, and move on (especially since Bruce’s father and Ra’s Al Ghul morality and ideology conflict with each other). The next time the city is alluded as Bruce’s mother is when Ra’s Al Ghul asks “can Gotham be saved, or is she an ailing ancestor whose time has run?” Another clue hinting at Bruce’s displacement is that instead of using the pronoun “it” (e.g."is 'it' an ailing ancestor..."), the female pronoun “she” is used instead. Thus, referring to it, both, as a person and as a woman. It’s important to note that in almost every conversation about Gotham, the topic of either death or salvation pops up. For example, the first time Rachel speaks to Batman she states that “corruption is killing Gotham.” This is exactly what happened to Bruce’s parents when they were murdered; corruption had created a high level of unemployment, which created people desperate to survive, which lead to Wayne’s parents being robbed and assassinated. One last clue that indicates that Gotham represents the mother of Bruce Wayne is when a character tells Bruce, "As Gotham’s favored son ..." To summarize, the fact that the comparison between saving his parents and saving the city is made, the fact that the people refer to the city as a woman, and that at least one of the characters refers to it as one of the parents of Bruce, indicates that Bruce has engaged in displacing his feelings towards his mother and moved them towards the city of Gotham.

          The next scenes explain where Bruce is in the development of his superego when his parents are killed. This occurs after the conversation in the train, when we see Thomas asking Bruce, "the bats again?" (This makes reference to the fact that not only is Bruce still thinking about the cave, but struggling to process it). Then, Bruce's father shows him a necklace that he will gift his mother, which makes explicit the fact that there still competition occurring for the mother’s attention. In the next scene, Bruce asks his parent to leave. When they exit through the side door, Thomas and Martha get robbed and shot. Bruce being in the last stage of the development of his superego loses three things. The first being his mom as the aim of his love, then the proper way in which to act from his dad, and finally the ability to realize that his father is not trying to castrate him. However, since his parents are dead, this cannot occur, and we can observe Bruce’s reverting back to an earlier stage. Evidence of this is seen when the he sees the robber coming, he seeks protection behind his mother not his father. Furthermore, the robber is fulfilling Bruce’s desire of getting rid of his competition, of getting rid of that source of jealousy. However, in Oedipus Rex, it is the main protagonist the one that kills his father, which means that Bruce in this story loses the ability to do it himself or the ability to understand that the father is not a competitor trying to castrate him, but rather a moral figure. Bruce redirects his attention into killing the man that murdered his parents. Nevertheless, when Falcone sends a woman to kill the robber for snitching on him, Bruce loses the ability to kill the man that killed his parents. Notice how up to now, we can see him operating under the drive of the Id (wanting to kill the robber), the reality principle (waiting until he is in the open, hiding the gun), but not under the morality of the super ego (killing is immoral).

He then leaves everything behind in search of meaning. In search of that which is unattainable: eliminating the threat that killed his parents. In his search, as mentioned before, he ends up under the tutelage of Ra’s Al Ghul. The leader of a group of vigilantes, known as the League of Assassins, trains him, takes the role of a father figure, and tells him that executing criminals is appropriate since it is for the greater good. This is Bruce’s final test. To execute a criminal by beheading. However, the trauma of seeing the death of his parents prevents him from doing this. Both in terms of death being distressing and the morality provided by his father. This causes him to reject Ra’s Al Ghul as a father figure and fighting back to the point where Bruce ends up destroying the fortress of the League of Assassins. The culmination of all of this is when Ra’s Al Ghul returns to Gotham to destroy it. His plan was to disperse a chemical compound in the water supply that induces fear and evaporate it with the help of a machine from Wayne Enterprises. To ensure the water supply was evaporated, Ras Al Ghul attempted to destroy Wayne Tower (a phallic symbol) in the middle of the city. This is symbolic of Bruce’s psychosexual stage. He still thinks that Ra’s Al Ghul, the father figure, is trying to castrate him. In other words, either Bruce rejoins him and follows his advice or Ra’s Al Ghul destroys the phallic symbol of the Wayne Tower and has the city to himself. Batman chooses to stop him. Bruce continues to listen to Alfred since he is the reminder of what his father said. At the end, we get another glance at Bruce not progressing in his development. Between choosing Rachel and the city (the standalone for his mom), Bruce chooses Gotham. Nevertheless, Rachel tells him that she will wait for him until he no longer feels the need to be Batman. Thus, effectively remaining afraid of castration, ignoring the advice of his father figure, retaining the mom as the love interest. However, he already started listening to Alfred, a new father figure, and will date Rachel when he no longer feels the need to protect Gotham, which means that he is not done yet, but he has begun with the development of his superego.