The Intersection of Psychanalysis & Genre
This was my final essay written for my Advanced Film Theory Class (Spring 2025). It focuses on the relationship between audience psychoanalysis and film genre and how they work to create impactful cinematic experiences, using Alfred Hitchcock’s films as a case study.
The Intersection of Psychanalysis & Genre
Genre and psychoanalysis are two aspects of filmmaking that have helped shape many of the most beloved films in cinematic history. Two of the many frameworks scholars use to analyze film, genre and psychoanalysis provide valuable insight into filmmaking when utilized on their own. Genre and psychoanalytic studies can tell us a great deal about how audiences respond to a film and what films connect the most with them, informing us on the cinematic landscape as a whole. When combined, these two frameworks can prove to be exceptionally effective in looking critically at cinema. This paper will argue that psychoanalysis and genre can be used in very interesting cinematic analysis and work together to create films that resonate with massive amounts of people over long periods of time. This will be done through a close analysis of the beloved director Alfred Hitchcock, specifically through two of his most celebrated thrillers, Rear Window and Vertigo.
Genre theory is a study of genre itself, the similarities in form, theme and iconography among certain types of stories, and the way those themes and formal elements come into play in a film. It studies what the conventional norms of certain stories are and how those conventional norms allow people to classify a work of art into one or a few specific categories. Films in the western genre are going to share similar themes and imagery due to being part of, and influenced by, films in that same genre. Same with horror movies, romance movies, and most relevantly to this analysis, thrillers. Genre theory also allows people to study film audiences, since genre films are the films that most resonate with mainstream American audiences, and the theory explores how and why this is. Psychoanalysis is also a study of the mind. Psychoanalysis, a type of psychology based on the works of Jean Martin-Charcot and Sigmund Freud, and cinema are both products of 1890s Europe and have come to be associated with each other as a result of psychoanalytical study in film. In film studies, psychoanalysis “shifts its emphasis away from the film itself, towards the spectator, or more precisely, towards the spectator-text relations that are central to the process of meaning-production in film,” (Flitterman-Lewis 210). It studies film as a shared dream and explores the connection between the film text and audience interpretations of that shared dream, making it uniquely equipped to be in conversation with genre theory.
Alfred Hitchcock’s work exists at the center of genre theory and psychoanalysis. Hitchcock is not only one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time, but he was arguably the most famous director in the world when he was active.During an interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock claimed that he crafted his films with “a 2,000 seat audience in mind,” (Jones 2015), showcasing his mainstream, audience-driven approach to film. Hitchcock primarily worked in the thriller and mystery genres, providing him the opportunity to tell exciting and suspenseful stories populated by complex, morally gray characters. Between 1954 and 1959, Hitchcock directed a series of highly acclaimed films with rich cinematic texts that film scholars have been able to analyze through a genre and psychoanalytical framework.
Rear Window (1954) follows a photojournalist named L.B. Jeffries who’s been cooped up in his apartment for weeks with a broken leg and believes he’s witnessed a murder from his window. The film takes place entirely within Jeffries’ apartment as he meticulously spies on his alleyway neighbors, becoming obsessed with piecing together this crime. It’s an exciting mystery-thriller, where the audience only knows as much as the protagonists, keeping the story engaging and suspenseful. Vertigo (1958) is another classic Hitchcock thriller and arguably one of his darkest films. It follows a retired detective with a fear of heights who becomes involved with his friend’s wife as he’s asked to follow her, becoming entangled in a web of conspiracy and obsession. These beloved thrillers can tell us a lot about the intersection of genre theory and psychoanalytic study through their dark subject matters and enduring popularity.
Rear Window is possibly cinema’s most famous exploration of voyeurism, as Hitchcock’s filmmaking puts us firmly in the perspective of the snooping protagonist. By telling the story through this perspective, Hitchcock “not only incites voyeurism but also reminds us that he himself, his characters and the audience share in this act too along with the social isolation experienced by Jeff,” (Bhugra 2). The audience is not only as intrigued as Jeffries as to what’s happening in his alley, but become voyeurs of Jeffries himself as we watch his obsession with a murder never even shown on film grow. The social isolation and constant reminder of looking present in Rear Window are compounded by hallmarks of the thriller genre such as strategic use of light and shadow, camera movements that follow Jeffries’ perspective, and a stirring, sinister score (Dunham 2020). These cinematic and textual elements come together to present a film that opens itself up to discussion, encouraging audiences to examine how they view film and what they take from watching stories like this play out.
Vertigo delves even deeper into the subject of obsession. The film is ultimately about how John “Scottie” Ferguson’s fixation with who he believes to be Madeleine Elster leads to his downfall, as he’s unknowingly made part of a murder plot where his friend killed the real Madeleine, and the woman Scottie became obsessed with was just a decoy named Judy Barton, playing the Madeleine role, who Scottie ultimately kills when he brings her to the same clock tower where the real Madeleine was murdered and she falls to her death. Vertigo is one of the most acclaimed yet controversial films ever made, with endless discussion of its themes telling us more about its changing audience than the film itself. With a story this complex and a look at love, manipulation, paranoia and infatuation this deep, it’s understandable why the film has remained such a major topic of discussion in film circles. The film is full of “buried ideas” that have been applied to it by spectators, whether it be the awareness of Jimmy Stewart’s public persona intertwined with the Scottie character or the awareness of the male gaze that has brought more sympathy to Judy (Burr 2023). Hitchcock combines this with more boundary pushing filmmaking, not only including trademarks of the thriller genre, but taking the opportunity to experiment with special effects, lighting and camerawork, helping popularize the dolly zoom with this film. He also plays with story structure in Vertigo, something he would become famous for 2 years later with Psycho, as we follow Scottie meandering around San Francisco when spying on “Madeleine” and the audience learns the twist a half hour before Scottie does. The film is simultaneously a great mystery-thriller and a subversive take on the genre most closely associated with its filmmaker. In every aspect Vertigo challenges its audience, flipping the form of a mystery-thriller on its head and speaking “more painfully and truthfully of human behavior than even its creators might have imagined,” (Burr 2023), and it’s no wonder why it’s become such a celebrated and deeply analyzed film.
Hitchcock’s filmography, particularly Vertigo and Rear Window, is very interesting to analyze in this context because he’s simultaneously an incredibly popular and enduring filmmaker who helped define the thriller, mystery and horror genres, and a filmmaker deeply interested in the psychology and darker side of humanity, making his films especially interesting as crowd-pleasing genre films. As shown in the Hitchcock/Truffaut documentary, Hitchcock was a filmmaker very preoccupied with how his audience responded to his films, always making them top priority during the filmmaking process. Throughout his life he made it clear how he understood the idea of cinematic texts being “shared dreams,” the way films are studied through psychoanalytic theory, and how the filmmakers and audience work together to form that shared dream. There’s a level of trust, especially with mainstream filmmakers, that the dream may be suspenseful and emotional, but that it’s ultimately safe for the audience to get lost in the fantasies of cinema. When discussing his 1936 film Sabotage, Hitchcock laments how he broke this trust when he killed off a young boy character on-screen. “Filmmakers and audiences collaborate in placing an ‘invisible cloak’ around sympathetic characters to keep them from harm. In killing Stevie, he penetrates that cloak,” in a sense punishing his audience, who came to see a thriller, for their “fear and longing for violent cataclysms,” (Osteen 263). He wishes in retrospect that he had the villain kill the boy off screen, turning the film into a revenge-thriller and keeping the audience both satisfied and protected. The fact that Hitchcock reflected this deeply about the viewer response to this scene makes it clear just how intrinsic the audience was to his filmmaking process, and why his most crowd-pleasing films were made after decades of perfecting his craft, but the differing responses to Sabotage versus a film like Rear Window can tell us a lot about an audience’s desires in the cinema as well.
As a filmmaker, Hitchcock had an impressive understanding of the intersection between genre and psychoanalytic theory, one that allowed him to create an incredible string of suspenseful, dark and exciting films that remain some of the most iconic in history. His genre of choice was usually the thriller, and he understood that the thriller was a genre whose conventions are used to allow audiences to explore their subconscious desires for danger and violence in a safe, controlled environment. Rear Window remains one of the most beloved films of all time because, as a thriller, it explores the themes of voyeurism and morbid curiosity while wrapping the audience in the “protective blanket” and not breaking the contract between filmmaker and public that Sabotage did. The audience isn’t punished for partaking in the voyeurism of the plot, as not only was the snooping worth it in the end, as Jeffries’ subject was truly a murderer, but Jeffries’ ultimate fate is that he simply broke his other leg and has to spend more time cooped up in his apartment. It’s a lighthearted ending to a satisfying piece of mainstream filmmaking. Vertigo’s acclaimed yet controversial place in the film canon is fitting, as it plays with these expectations in a more challenging way. Just as it plays with the structure of the thriller, it plays with the audience's expectations as well. It’s a darker take on the themes of infatuation and manipulation, where audiences watch in horror and intrigued as Scottie’s character arc morphs him from humble hero to a sinister obsessive. Like Sabotage, Vertigo kills off some prominent characters. However, 22 years had passed between the two films, and Hitchcock had the skill to make Judy sympathetic yet nuanced, as well as to have her death be both off screen and at the hands of a Scottie unrecognizable from the character we met at the beginning of the film. Hitchcock may lift the blanket from our shoulders, but as we watch Vertigo, we can still feel its presence, leaving the trust between audience and director intact.
Ultimately, Hitchcock was a filmmaker with a clear idea of what he was making and who he was making it for. He understood the conventions of the genres he worked in, allowing him the opportunity to experiment within those boundaries in compelling ways, and more than anything understood what spectators want from the cinematic experience. Looking at the moviegoing experience from a psychological perspective, audiences want shared dreams where they can explore desires and fantasies in the protective, controlled setting of the theater. Through his understanding of these concepts, Hitchcock created not only a strong legacy for himself in the cinematic world, but a blueprint for filmmakers that followed him to do the same.
Works Cited
Rear Window. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1954.
Vertigo. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1958.
Hitchcock/Truffaut. Directed by Kent Jones. Cohen Media Group, 2015.
Bhugra, Dinesh. “What Can Hitchcock Teach Us about Psychopathology? Part 2: Voyeurism and Obsession in Rear Window (1954).” Forensic Science International. Mind and Law, vol. 1, 2020, pp. 100027-, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2020.100027.
Burr, Tyler. “Perspective | ‘Vertigo’ Is Still the Best Movie Ever. Or the Worst Movie Ever. Discuss.” Washington Post, 25 May 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2023/05/09/vertigo-at-65-hitchcock-weirdest-movie/.
Dunham, Brent. “How to Master Suspense with 5 Film Techniques.” StudioBinder, 25 Oct. 2020, www.studiobinder.com/blog/elements-of-suspense/.
Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy. “Psychoanalysis, Film & Television.” Channels of Discourses Reassembled, edited by Robert Allen, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1992, pp. 203-247.
Osteen, Mark. “‘It Doesn’t Pay to Antagonize the Public’: ‘Sabotage’ and Hitchcock’s Audience.” Literature Film Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 4, 2000, pp. 259–68.