Skip to content
1981
Volume 16, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2042-1869
  • E-ISSN: 2042-1877

Abstract

Hitchcock’s is a circular tale of projection and deception, whereby protagonist Scottie repeatedly finds himself reliving the very fears he means to avoid. Perhaps is one of Hitchcock’s most successful films because of its psychological accuracy. Despite Hitchcock’s claims of having no knowledge or interest in psychoanalysis, the narrative in accurately reflects Freudian ideas of the repetition compulsion, the interpretation of dreams, the Oedipus complex, and the death drive. The spiral is used to symbolize the cyclical nature of trauma, as well as the interplay between death and desire.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00379_1
2025-06-30
2026-04-15

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Berman, Emanuel.Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’: The Collapse of a Rescue Fantasy.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 78, 1997, pp. 97588.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Blennerhassett, Richard.Vertigo: Out of the Past.Psychological Perspectives, vol. 54, no. 1, 2011, pp. 5465, https://doi.org/10.1080/00332925.2011.547123.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Chandler, Charlotte. It’s Only a Movie. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Cixous, Hélène, and Annette Kuhn. “Castration or Decapitation?” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 7, no. 1, 1981, pp. 4155, https://doi.org/10.1086/493857.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. International Psycho-Analytical Press, 1922.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams: Part II. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 5, translated and edited by James Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1953, pp. 339625.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gabbard, Glen O.Vertigo: Female Objectification, Male Desire, and Object Loss.” Psychoanalytic Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 2, 1998, pp. 16167, https://doi.org/10.1080/07351699809534181.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Gustainis, J. Justin, and Deborah Jay DeSilva. “Archetypes as Propaganda in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Lost’ World War II Films.Film & History, vol. 27, no. 1, 1997, pp. 8087.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hitchcock, Alfred. Spellbound. Paramount, 1945.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hitchcock, Alfred. The Man Who Knew Too Much. Paramount, 1956.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Hitchcock, Alfred. Vertigo. Paramount, 1958.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Levine, Susan S.Means and Ends in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, or Kant You See?The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 96, no. 1, 2015, pp. 22537, https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-8315.12296.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory. Routledge, 1989.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Palgrave, 1989.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Sanchez-Cardenas, Michel.Matte Blanco and Narrativity: Hitchcock’s Vertigo.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 94, no. 4, 2013, pp. 82540, https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-8315.12068.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Sandis, Constantine. “Hitchcock’s Conscious Use of Freud’s Unconscious.” Europe’s Journal of Psychology, vol. 5, no. 3, 2009, pp. 5681.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Wood, Robin.Male Desire, Male Anxiety: The Essential Hitchcock.A Hitchcock Reader, edited by M. Deutelbaum and L. Poague, Iowa State University Press, 1989, pp. 21930.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Rickman, John, editor. A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud. Anchor Books, 1989.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00379_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00379_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): death drive; Freud; Hitchcock; psychoanalysis; repetition compulsion; Vertigo
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test