How Does Gone Girl Relate To Psychology

The brain and its capacities are not only fascinating, but outrageously complex as well. There is a depth to the human psyche that is endless and full of undiscovered elements. Sounds like the perfect subject for a movie right? Psychoanalytic film theory, is the result of this fascination with the brain. Marrying the principles of psychoanalysis with the narrative art of cinema. Filmmakers can not only create stories based on psychological conditions, but use them to manipulate their audience as well. Either way, it’s crazy to think that while you’re watching a movie about a psychological topic, the filmmaker could be presenting the movie in a way that taps into your psychological perception as well. Psychoanalytic film theory and its principles,

Visual pleasure, more formally known as “scopophillia”, is all about gaining pleasure from visual stimulus. Laura Mulvey has written many essays on this idea, especially on how it pertains to film. She argues that there is a problem with the way genders are presented in most films. That all too often men are the narrative driving protagonists of film, and women are merely sexual objects for the hero and the audience to gaze upon. She calls this the “male gaze” theory. “The power to subject another person to the will sadistically or to the gaze voyeuristically is turned onto the woman as the object of both” (Mulvey, p. 37). This interesting and unfortunately true statement, has been proven in many films. We see evidence of this in films like Rear Window, The Graduate, Transformers, and many more. Gone Girl displays some of these principles, but in an interestingly less stereotypical way. Gone Girl takes the idea of “male gaze” and turns it around. While his wife is missing, Nick has a fundraiser and television campaign, in hopes that someone will come forward with information about Amy. Throughout his efforts we see women gazing upon him. Completely ignoring the current situation, and making sexual comments toward him. They awe and gawk at him in his time of grief. Later in the film Nick and his lawyer realize they can use this to their advantage. Not necessarily in a sexual way, but rather in an empathetic sort of way. They put Nicks face all over newspapers, and go on television interviews, with the intention of portraying a likeable facade. The more that people like him, and feel sorry for him, the less likely he is to be convicted. It’s interesting that this film not only uses male gaze in a different way, but utilizes it to push forward in the