The Return Of The Repressed Essay

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Two famous movies “The others” and “The Descent” are perfect examples of the return of the repressed. The term repressed came from Sigmund Freud’s ideas. As philosopher and doctor at the same time, Freud “was interested in looking at the relationship between mental functioning and certain basic structures of civilization, such as religious beliefs” (Klages). Looking at civilization he sees two fundamental principles: "pleasure principle" and the "reality principle." “The pleasure principle tells us to do whatever feels good; the reality principle tells us to subordinate pleasure to what needs to be done, to work” (Klages). According to Freud, the desire for sexual pleasure is one of the most basic urges that all humans feel. However, people cannot have sex all the time. So we have to sublimate most of our desires for sexual pleasure, and turn that energy into something else. Freud claims that without the sublimation of our sexual desires our civilization would not exist. The principle of pleasure makes us want something that feel good. On the contrary, the reality principle tells us to direct our energy into something else. However, the desire for pleasure doesn't disappear, even when it's sublimated to another unwonted action. The desires that can't be realized are repressed in the mind, which Freud names the unconscious. So, everyone’s mind contains repressed desires inaccessible to the conscious mind. In another words, “the contents of the unconscious consist primarily of sexual desires which have been repressed” (Klages).
The main character of the film “The others”, Grace, lives in the distant house with her two children: daughter Anne and son Nicholas. Her husband Charles fights in France during the World War II and he has no...

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... lair as a masculine female. Another transformation takes place when Juno, who “maintain an exterior of female masculinity - attractive, aware, muscular, and positive as well as constantly taking charge” (Rose) in this film, demonstrates qualities that are usually aligned with weak female characters. She is crying, sobbing, and collapsing, so she becomes more feminine. She is crying not for what she did but for her weakness as a female.
Two movies, “The others” and “The Descent” demonstrate perfect examples of the return of the repressed. Grace in the first film becomes a murder, because she becomes crazy because of her difficult repressed life without husband. In the second film, Sarah transforms from a weak, unlucky woman to a primitive coldblooded killer. They have something in common: they are both lost their husbands, but their repressed states are different.

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