Psychology for Screenwriters

by William Indick

  THE GODDESS

  Like Freud, Jung believed that children retain internalized images of their parents within their psyches. But unlike Freud, Jung also believed that the internalized parental figure is revealed in dreams and myth in archetypal form. The parental archetype carries with it the cultural associations related to the parental figures. Hence, the mother figure in myth is represented as a divine mother – i.e., earth goddess, fertility goddess, mother nature, mother Madonna, etc. The goddess archetype is the collective, universal mother who is comforting, nurturing, gentle, and kind. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940), Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke) in The Wizard of Oz (1939), and the Fairy Godmothers in Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959) are all lucid examples of the goddess archetype. They are all comforting, nurturing, divine mother figures. More recently, the goddess appeared as Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). The goddess-as-mother archetype serves essentially the same function that the actual mother serves in childhood. When encountering the goddess, the hero integrates the emotional strength, intuitive wisdom, and sensitivity associated with a positive mother figure.

  THE SHADOW GODDESS

  In keeping with Jung’s psychology of opposites, the positive maternal archetype – the goddess – is balanced by the existence of a negative maternal archetype – the evil sorceress or wicked witch. In a sense, the wicked witch is the shadow of the goddess. As the goddess is the idealized mother carrying all of her positive attributes, the witch is the vilified mother carrying all of her negative attributes. The witch is often portrayed as an evil stepmother, recapitulating the fundamental evil stepmother/wicked witch archetype from mythology… Medea. The combined archetype of evil stepmother and wicked witch became engrained in the American collective unconscious through Disney’s Snow White (1937) and Sleeping Beauty (1958).

  In non-fantasy films, the witch is often a mean or menacing maternal figure, as seen in Mommie Dearest (1981) and Flowers in the Attic (1987). In East of Eden (1955) the long-absent mother (Jo Van Fleet) appears to Cal (James Dean) as a shadow figure dressed in black. For Cal, his mother is a shadow – a mother who abandoned him long ago, and who now runs a brothel in the seedy red light district of Monterey. Long repressed and conflicted memories from childhood, issues of abandonment, cruelty, abuse, shame, and neglect, are all represented through the shadow goddess archetype.

  REAL LIFE GODDESSES

  Any comforting, nurturing female figure who offers emotional wisdom, intuitive guidance, and love (but not romantic love), fulfills the function of the goddess archetype. Realistic maternal figures are neither idealized nor vilified. A well-developed maternal figure may have qualities of both the goddess and the witch. The difference between idealized, vilified, and real maternal figures is exhibited in East of Eden. Cal’s mother (Jo Van Fleet) is a real person. She loves Cal, but she also abandoned him. She cannot be the mother he wants her to be, but she helps Cal by giving him the money he needs to realize his ambitious goals. Real life goddesses are helpful, nurturing, even healing… but they are not always superlatively good, nor must they be completely evil.

  THE WISE OLD MAN

  The male parent, the father, is represented by the wise old man archetype. Other versions of the paternal archetype are the god, the prophet, the wizard, the healer, or any older male figure who offers wisdom, advice, or guidance. In films, the wise old man fulfills the nebulous function of the mentor figure for the hero. (The goddess could likewise be described as a female mentor figure for the heroine.) As mentor, the wise old man appears in many roles: father, older brother, teacher, preacher, doctor, therapist, coach, captain, president, king, wizard, etc. And, in keeping with Jungian duality, the shadow father figure often is represented in the role of the false mentor or negative father figure. Darth Vader in Star Wars epitomizes the shadow version of the father archetype, (Darth Vader literally means “Dark Father”). Obi Won, on the other hand, epitomizes the wise old man in his pure, positive form. In The Wizard of Oz, the menacing apparition of the wizard is the shadow father figure, while the kindly old man (Frank Morgan) behind the veil of the apparition is the positive father figure. The wise old man represents the hero’s need to integrate the father figure or mentor, which is often the central relationship in a film.

  ANIMA

  A balanced self incorporates both masculine and feminine traits. The male self carries the embodiment of the feminine in the form of the female archetype – the anima. The qualities personified by the anima are stereotypically feminine strengths such as sensitivity, emotional wisdom, intuition, empathy, and care. The anima is not the same archetype as the goddess, as the anima is often a romantic or erotic figure. The goddess, in her function as a mother figure, is divine and therefore asexual. The goddess offers a mother’s love, while the anima offers sexual or romantic love. In traditional hero stories, the anima is typically cast as the “maiden in distress,” the female figure that the hero must find and rescue. Princess Leia in Star Wars plays the role of the maiden in distress whom Luke must rescue from the Death Star. By rescuing the maiden, the hero incorporates his anima and integrates an essential part of his self.

  The anima in films is usually the “love interest.” The love theme is considered a crucial part of the film, even if the love interest plot is ancillary to the main story of the movie. Just as love is a necessary part of each person’s life, audiences intuitively feel that love is a necessary part of every movie. When a film is over, audiences need to feel that the hero’s character is now fully developed and that he is somehow “complete.” Getting the girl in the end, integrating the anima, addresses this need for completeness in the hero’s character. Not only has he conquered his shadow and developed as a person, he has also found love. The integration of the anima completes the hero’s self. She is also a reward for the hero. Once he accomplishes his goal, he is rewarded with love, and his life is now complete. He and his maiden can marry and live happily ever after.

  FEMME FATALE

  Every positive archetype has an opposing negative archetype… its archetypal “shadow.” The Shadow Anima in movies is the infamous “femme fatale.” The shadowy seductress offers sexual love rather than pure love. She is also typically a dangerous figure for the hero. Like the Sirens in Homer’s Odyssey, the femme fatale lures the hero away from his quest and into her lair with her sexual siren song. She then threatens his mortality when his guard is down. As false anima, the femme fatale is either a “vamp” – luring the hero away from his “good girl” love interest. Or she is a true femme “fatale” – in that she poses a physical threat to the hero’s life. Alex (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Catherine (Sharon Stone) in Basic Instinct both fulfill the archetypal functions of the femme fatale. In Fatal Attraction, Alex’s obsession with Dan (Michael Douglas) threatens his relationship with his wife (Anne Archer), and also endangers his life. The shadow anima is an extremely powerful archetypal figure because she combines the two most primal drives – sex and aggression – into one character. The femme fatale’s power arises from her sexuality. Her danger lies in the hero’s helplessness in the face of her alluring sexuality. Though he can fight monsters and armies, the hero is defenseless against the femme fatale.

  ANIMUS

  The masculine archetype in the female psyche is the animus. The archetype represents the stereotypically masculine traits of courage, leadership, intellectual wisdom, and physical strength. Clearly, the anima/animus duality is a product of traditional Western mythology, in which the male carrying the traits listed above is the hero, and the female is the maiden whom the hero must rescue. There are very few (if any) female heroes in traditional Western mythology. Nevertheless, the modern mythology of film is the product of a modern age of liberated women, so there are many movies with female heroes, especially in contemporary cinema. In these modern myths, the animus figure plays a similar function as the anima in traditional male hero stories – the function of the love interest.
So, in movies with both male and female heroes such as Romancing the Stone, the hero and heroine play the respective functions of animus and anima for each other. As Joan Wilder’s animus, Jack inspires Joan to be brave, tough, adventurous, and strong. And as Jack Colton’s anima, Joan inspires Jack to be loving, sensitive, caring, and faithful.

  Since the hero archetype is traditionally masculine, when a woman is cast as the sole hero in a film, such as the title character (Angelina Jolie) in Lara Croft: Tombraider (2001), the heroine is usually imbued with the masculine qualities normally required of male heroes. Consequently, male love interests in female hero movies take on the functions normally required of the anima, and are often rescued by heroines, as seen when Lara Croft goes back in time somehow to rescue her love interest, Alex (Daniel Craig). Male love interests also tend to be sensitive, loving, and supportive rather than strong and brave. In these stories, the heroines are strong and brave, and their male love interests are “males in distress.”

  THE SHADOW ANIMUS

  The monster, serial killer, or psycho fulfills the function of the shadow animus in “slasher” movies such as Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Shadow animus figures such as Freddie Krueger (Robert Englund) and Red (Robert Downey Jr.) in In Dreams (2003) are particularly Jungian figures, because they haunt their female victims in their nightmares and dreams. The heroine in these films plays the traditional feminine role as a “maiden in distress.” In the end, the heroine develops her character by encountering her shadow animus rather than running from him. At this final climactic encounter, she integrates his violent power by destroying him in a typically gruesome manner.

  THE TRICKSTER

  Many of the ancient mythological gods were deceptive deities who played tricks on mortals to confuse them and mess with their heads. In The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Satan (Donald Pleasance) confounds Jesus (Max von Sydow) by tempting him with earthly pleasures and testing his faith in God. When trickster gods offer wisdom, the wisdom is most often delivered in the form of a riddle. The hero must prove his intelligence by solving the riddle before being rewarded with the god’s wisdom or guidance. In Excalibur (1981), the immortal guardian of the Holy Grail does not reward Percival (Paul Geoffrey) with the Grail until he answers his cryptic question.

  Trickster Heroes: Gene Wilder & Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles (1974).

  When the trickster archetype appears in movies, it is usually in the form of a comedian. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd played archetypal trickster heroes. They encountered and defeated their shadows using trickery, chicanery, and deceit. Though trickster heroes may also display the traditional heroic qualities of physical strength, bravery, and determination, their principal strengths are intelligence, alacrity, and ingenuity. When Mel Brooks made a Western farce in Blazing Saddles (1974), he transfigured the traditional Western hero into trickster heroes. Though Bart (Cleavon Little) and the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) are brave and strong, they defeat the bad guys by tricking them in a succession of comical pranks.

  When the trickster figure is not the hero, he probably plays the part of a comic-relief sidekick. In the Marx Brothers and Abbott & Costello movies, the box office draw was not the hero of the films – the young man who fought the bad guy, won the girl’s heart and saved the day – the draw was the comic-relief sidekicks, the trickster characters who helped the hero at every step of the way by hoaxing the villains and running them around in circles. Whether your trickster character is a comical sidekick or the hero of your story, remember that the key to this archetype is intelligence. Heroes, especially action heroes, gain most of their victories through physical strength, skill, and courage. In the mask of the trickster, the hero must succeed through intelligence – a crucial, yet often overlooked, archetypal quality of the heroic character.

  THE SHAPESHIFTER

  Jung believed that shapeshifters are symbolic of the Self, which is always growing, changing, and developing. In a sense, all principal characters are shapeshifters. Principal characters should develop through the course of the story, and development means that the characters change in some significant way. The slick big-city reporter (Jean Arthur) in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) becomes less jaded when she falls in love with the innocent and wholesome Deeds (Gary Cooper). The egoistic, womanizing airforce cadet (Richard Gere) in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) is transformed into a caring soul by his love for a town girl (Debra Winger). And Bud (Charlie Sheen), the eager young stockbroker in Wall Street (1987), is corrupted by a crooked financial fat-cat (Michael Douglas) and turned into a back-stabbing, greedy scoundrel. In the 3rd act, Bud shifts shape once again and is reborn as a man with integrity and honor.

  SHAPESHIFTING TRICKERY

  The mythological gods were often shapeshifters, as well as tricksters. The two archetypes are similar both in function and symbolism. Zeus, for example, would shapeshift into the form of an eagle, so he could fly down from Mount Olympus and shapeshift once again into human form and trick a beautiful mortal into sleeping with him. Similarly, shapeshifting is an archetypal form of trickery in movies. Bugs Bunny would regularly disguise himself as a woman to evade Elmer Fudd. Luke and Han in Star Wars disguised themselves as Stormtroopers to gain entry into the Death Star. And Bart and the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles disguise themselves as Klu Klux Klansmen in order to infiltrate the gang of marauders. The shapeshifting-as-trickery plot line is as ancient as myth itself, and it still continues to be an effective device in stories told today. Like all of the archetypal characters and plots, though they are ancient and formulaic, they still can be very powerful and engaging if they are pulled off with originality and wit.

  PHYSICAL SHAPESHIFTERS

  Vampires and werewolves are terrifying and awesome archetypal figures because they represent the supernatural power of the gods. In mythology, only divine beings could physically shift into the shape of animals or other non-human forms. Count Dracula is possibly the most frequently depicted shapeshifter in film history. The shapeshifting villainous robot (Robert Patrick) in Terminator 2 (1991) represents a modern version of the ancient supernatural archetype. Whether shapeshifting is accomplished through physical transfigurations in shape or critical transformations in character, the shapeshifter archetype is a universal feature in stories and film, and an extremely resonant symbol of the human potential for personal change, transformation, and rebirth.

  CHAPTER EIGHT SUMMARY POINTS

  The collective unconscious is composed of universally shared images and associations called archetypes.

  Archetypes represent the basic human predisposition to share and understand common psychological issues such as the experience of having a mother and father, the desire for love, or the need for spiritual healing and rebirth.

  The hero figure in myth, legend, literature, and film is the primary archetype of the self.

  The persona is the “mask” of our personalities that we reveal to others.

  Actors are the physical embodiment of the persona – they are the body and face of the characters they play.

  Typecasting arises from the psychological connection that audiences make between actors and their on-screen personas.

  The hero character usually fulfills the function of the persona archetype in the myth or dream of his own story. As his own persona, the hero must encounter and integrate the other parts of his self – represented by the other archetypes.

  The shadow archetype is the dark side of our personalities that we hide from others.

  The villain figure in films usually fulfills the function of the shadow archetype.

  The goddess archetype represents the mother archetype in positive form.

  The evil stepmother or wicked witch are archetypal representations of the shadow goddess— the negative or dark qualities associated with the mother figure.

  The wise old man archetype represents the father figure in positive form. This figure typically fulfills the function of the mentor char
acter.

  Darth Vader in Star Wars epitomizes the false mentor archetype… the negative father figure.

  The anima archetype represents the feminine character traits in positive form.

  The anima is typically depicted as the maiden in distress and/or love interest in traditional hero stories.

  The femme fatale archetype is the shadow anima. She is a dark temptress who seduces the hero away from his journey or true love and into the realm of danger.

  The animus archetype represents the masculine character traits in positive form.

  Freddie Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies epitomizes the shadow animus – the dark, perverse, sadistic, and destructive side of the masculine character.

  The trickster archetype uses humor and intelligence to trick his way through his journey. Tricksters are typically cast in the role of the comic relief sidekick.

  The shapeshifter archetype is symbolic of the self, which is perpetually developing and changing in nature. Shapeshifting also represents spiritual or divine power.