Freudian Structure of the Mind
According to Sigmund Freud, personality is made up of three structures. The Id is the seat of all human emotions, and is likely to have resided in the limbic region of the brain which is responsible for hunger and fear responses. It is also believed to be responsible for other more complex human emotions such as romantic love. The limbic region is also responsible for controlling the powerful and primitive self-preservation instincts. The Id is impulsive, unreasonable and unrealistic and demands the immediate gratification of all its demands. It is not affected by logic or reality or everyday life.
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The second component of personality is the Ego. It acts as the balance between the Id and the Superego. Its operations are guided by the principle of reality, and it looks for realistic ways of satisfying the Id’s demands. It has no concept of wrong or right. The Superego is the third structure of personality. It incorporates the morals and values of society, and it focuses on controlling the Id’s impulses, and focuses on making moralistic goals and creating perfection. It is made up of the ideal self (the image of how one should be) and the conscience. It is responsible for feelings such as guilt and embarrassment.
Forbidden Planet and Freudian Theory
The movie Forbidden Planet deals with a lot of the human mind and behavior. One of the concepts that come out in the move is Sigmund Freud’s theory of Psychoanalysis. The concepts of the Id and Superego are seen in the beast and the manner in which Morbius deals with it. The beast which destroys the former inhabitants of that planet lies within them. According to this movie, everyone has a beast living inside of him. This beast lies in the subconscious or is stimulated by it. It cannot be accessed through sheer will. The doctor tries to access this inaccessible world and by so doing, he disrupts life on that planet.
Oedipus complex is unveiled in his need to protect his daughter. Since her birth, Altaira has had no other male figure in her life. The only person she had interacted with was her father, and the robot which is an inanimate object. Her father was her protector since their arrival on that planet. She does not fully understand her sexuality and was yet to realize what she wants. She is not aware of her biological urges or her sexual development, except from a theoretical perspective. The male crew realizes this and quickly takes advantage of her naïveté. On realizing this Adam is disgusted and takes on the role of her protector. His forceful attitude and protective nature awaken Altaira's dormant desires and a romantic relationship blossoms between them. The doctor is displeased by the effect the men appear to be having on his daughter. He is also not pleased with the fact that these people have interfered with his perfect utopia, and he begins to push for them to leave his planet.
In the movie Forbidden Planet, suppression of the subconscious is seen when the monster which the doctor had suppressed within for so long finally comes out to rein terror on the people. Morbius had long suppressed his hatred for mankind and this caused his Id to create the monster that later killed almost everyone in the planet. It is possible that the return of the monster was triggered by Morbius’ negative feelings for the men who came to the planet because its return coincides with the time when he was pushing for their return to earth. His suppressed hatred for them was so intense that his subconscious created a monster to destroy them.
When Adam points out that Morbius created the monster from his subconscious, he fails to believe him. This is a clear sign of denial. He chooses to ignore the problem within for so long, that he cannot believe it when finally confronted with the truth. When the monster attacks them and Morbius orders the robot to destroy it, Robby refuses as he understands that the monster is simply an extension of his master.
Morbius finally realized that the mind control device he had used earlier had created this terrible monster by tapping into his subconscious, and by releasing his Id’s darkest instinctual urges. He had no power over it, which shows the immense power of the Id if left uncontained. He described it as his evil self, and is finally destroyed as he tried to destroy it. This was the same fate that befell the previous occupants of that planet, the Krell, two hundred thousand years before. When they first activated the mind control device, it created monsters from their subconscious which destroyed them all, completely wiping out their civilization.
The movie Forbidden Planet is about realizing the terror that lives in each one of us, and learning to deal with it before it completely destroys us. Morbius’ suppression of his instinctual drives leads to his destruction as did the Krells’.
References
Ewen, R. B. (2003). Introduction to Theories of Personality. Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the pleasure principle. Colombus, OH: SE.
Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id. Colombus, OH: SE.
