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The document analyzes Todd Phillips's film 'The Joker' (2019) through a psychoanalytic lens, focusing on the character Arthur Fleck's mental state and his relationship with his mother, Penny. It discusses themes of psychosis, identity, and the nature of comedy, highlighting Arthur's transformation into the Joker and his struggle with reality and self-perception. The analysis incorporates concepts from Freud and Lacan, exploring the unconscious and the impact of societal expectations on mental health.

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Norman Marin
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22 views

Joker-PDF-PPT

The document analyzes Todd Phillips's film 'The Joker' (2019) through a psychoanalytic lens, focusing on the character Arthur Fleck's mental state and his relationship with his mother, Penny. It discusses themes of psychosis, identity, and the nature of comedy, highlighting Arthur's transformation into the Joker and his struggle with reality and self-perception. The analysis incorporates concepts from Freud and Lacan, exploring the unconscious and the impact of societal expectations on mental health.

Uploaded by

Norman Marin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Todd Phillips’s The Joker (2019)

Revisited from a Psychoanalytic Perspective

Norman Marín Calderón


Mental Health in America: A Real Issue

Society projects their own reality onto the Joker.


PSYCHOANALYSIS

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

The Freudian Unconscious

“The work by which we bring the repressed, unconscious mental material into the patient’s

consciousness.”

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)

“The Unconscious is structured like a language.”


THE FILM

Arthur Fleck

His sick mother (Penny)

A neglected neighborhood

He is a “clown”

Mental Institutions

The Murray Franklin Show on TV


Arthur is a stabilized psychotic.

Clown: Signifier (or Image) between tragedy and comedy.

PSYCHOSIS

Paranoia

Delusion

Fragmented body Image

Passage to commit crimes

Language disturbances

The psychotic individual is always “certain” of things.


THE FIRST TIME OR PERIOD

(Pre-Psychosis)

His reflection in the mirror

He is a “passive” individual.

He has a fragmented body image.


HIS MENTAL STATE

He visits a social worker/psychiatrist.

He takes medicines.

Notebook to collect his thought as well as his JOKES.

Notebook with spelling mistakes, repetition of words, pasted images of

pornographic magazines (language disturbances).


His body image

Violent against himself and inner objects

……………………………………………..

Another characteristic of psychosis is then the invasion of excessive satisfaction:

pleasure that is accompanied with pain (the French word to define the fusion of

pleasure with pain is jouissance).


THE SYNDROME OF DISCORDANCE

PBA (Pseudobulbar Affect): Frequent, involuntary, uncontrollable outbursts

of crying and/or laughter

He is introverted.

He is disconnected with his surroundings.


Penny (His mother)

Thomas Wayne

……………………………………………………………………

A key characteristic of psychotics is their unbreakable, even pathological

link they have with their mother.

……………………………………………………………………….

The M-Other
"My mother tells me to smile and put on a happy face. She

says that my purpose is to bring laughter and joy to the

world."
a-father

“Without” “Artificial”

Murray Franklin = Ideal father?

"...you see all this, the lights, the show, the people.... All that I'd give up in a heartbeat to

have a kid like you."

This type of mirrored identifications are the departure of the psychotics’ hallucinations and

delusions, very common in these kinds of people.


Thomas Wayne

…………………………………………………………………………….

- PENNY. Because Thomas Wayne is a good man. If he knew how we lived...if he

saw this place would make him nauseous. I can't explain it any better.

- ARTHUR. Don't worry about the money, Mom. Or me. Everyone says my jokes

will make it to big clubs.

- PENNY. But, "Happy" (nickname she gives Arthur) what makes you think you

will?

- ARTHUR. What do you mean?

- PENNY. ...Shouldn't you be funny to be a comedian?


QUESTIONS WITH NO ANSWERS

• What is it to be a comedian?

• What is it to be funny?

• What is comedy?
Sophie Dumond

…………………………………………………………

What is to be a man?

What does it mean to be virile?


Arthur’s Depersonalization

……………………………………………………………….

Arthur Fleck The Joker

……………………………………………………………………………….

Delusions and hallucinations (which are positive symptoms of psychosis)

then mark the beginning of the second period.


THE SECOND PERIOD

Arthur/The Joker is no longer a sad and passive character.

………………………………………………………………………..

One key characteristic of psychotics is their inability to understand metaphorical language.

He cannot create nor understand (new) metaphors.

……………………………………………………………

DEFINITION: A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a

way that isn't literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. Here are the

basics: A metaphor states that one thing is another thing.


The creation (invention) of delusional metaphors

……………………………………………….

Not love but erotomania (A person with erotomania has a delusional belief that

another person is in love with him or her despite clear evidence against it.)

………………………………………………………………..

"It makes perfect sense. What kind of coward would do something so soulless if

not hidden behind a mask...someone who is envious of other people...who are

afraid to show their face."

………………………………………………………………………..

"And until those people get better, those of us who have succeeded the most in life

will continue to see them as vile clowns."


“I said that my whole life I didn't even know if I really

existed, but I exist, and people start noticing me. … Yes, I do

exist."
THIRD PERIOD

"You used to tell me that my laughter was a disorder. That something was wrong

with me. It's not true. It's the real me."

…………………………

"You know what makes me laugh, what really makes me laugh? I used to think my

life was a tragedy, but now I see it's all a comedy."


"I just hope that my death makes more cents than my

life."

("I just hope that my death makes more sense than my life")

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