STUDIES AND RESEARCH

Final Analysis: But why Does the Final Analysis Need to Be so Final? — Psychoanalysis on Film

Final Analysis differs from the array of films and TV series that use the character of the psychiatrist-psychotherapist in the sense that its theme is a patient’s attempt (a patient who has a theoretical knowledge) to deceive the psychiatrist. The essay questions the credibility of the duel between the quasi-theoretician and practitioner, and analyses the portrait of the pathology-crazed psychiatrist. The essay also examines whether analysis in its ’ideal’ form — as the final awakening of the unconscious — equals death, or does this films promote ’ideal’ and violent analysis as a way to unveil a deep dark secret that becomes the ultimate truth.

While more subtle films, like Robert Redford’s Ordinary People speak of traumas caused by non-violent motives, like the lack of mother’s love, Final Analysis adopts a spectacular B-production mechanism, where behind every secret lies darkness and violence (even incest). In the same manner, the naivety of the psychiatrist (adequately portrayed by the American Gigolo Richard Gere) reflects the naivety of the script and dramaturgy.

Željka Matijašević