Freudian Vission of Batman

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2006)

Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is a Freudian interpretation of the classic comic book hero, drawing extensively from the oedipal theories of psycho-sexual development and intentionally creating the Bruce Wayne / Batman figure in an almost exact accordance with Freud's perspectives of the unconscious.
Christian Bale's creation of Batman is the product of a hectic world, where there aren't simply two faces of the one man, but three. According to Freud the human psyche is the product of three divisions; The Super-ego, Ego, and the Id. Bruce first appears to us as an eight year old boy, who is undergoing the dissolution of the oedipal complex, he is coming to terms with hid father's prominence. David S. Goya symbolizes Bruce's awareness and reverence of the father in the phallic symbol of the Wayne Public Transportation system, "Did you build this train dad?" Goya is forming the basis of Bruce Wayne's Super-ego; he is showing the internalization of the father figure and the particular morality that governs him, notions like charity and nobility. As soon as we have the Super-Ego established the film continues the progression of the stages of psycho-sexual development to show how Bruce's Id is born. The young child is exposed to the emotional trauma caused by being witness to his parent's murder; Joe Chill replaces the role of Jack Napier in the Wayne's death, diminishing the Jungian concept of duality, which had previously been maintained in film. This setups up the vicious challenge to Thomas Wayne's cultural belief system, and creates an Id that desires brutal vengeance. This Id is nurtured by figures like Henri Ducard, Bruce's mentor in the martial arts, who preaches of the ruthless pursuit of criminals. The Ego is how Bruce balances these two opposing forces, how he satisfies the Id's obsessive compulsion for justice, whilst honoring the Super-ego's memory of his father, and then establishing a compromise for his own Ego. The climax of the film sees the destruction of the Wayne Public Transportation system, symbolizing the end of Thomas Wayne's prominence and the birth of Batman / Bruce Wayne's own identity.