Joseph Roel J.

Mabajen
IV-Einstein

Black Swan- A Psychoanalysis

Black Swan is a film under the psychological horror and thriller genre directed by Darren

Aronofsky. It follows the story of Nina, a ballerina in whose life is completely devoted to dance.

Tension ensues when she is not able to properly portray the Black Swan. Black Swan presents

various psychological aspects, specifically the apparent presence of ID, ego, and superego, and

can be analyzed using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

The superego is a part of the personality that concerns with the principle of morality. The

superego in the black swan is presented through Mrs. Sayers, Nina’s mother. Throughout the

film, her mother seemingly is successful in “controlling” Nina, and setting up her mindset to

ballet solely. She tries to goad Nina in becoming the “perfect” dancer, doing all the right moves

in the right time, rather than using ballet as a medium of her inner emotions, thoughts, and

feelings. The mother tries desperately to restrain her daughter from living independently and

freely. But about halfway through the film, Nina refuses to be her “puppet” any longer, realizing

that her mother is actually bitter about her accomplishments.

The ID is part of the personality that is related to the pleasure principle, which strives for

immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs of an individual. Throughout the film,

Nina was not able to properly perform the role of the black swan, mainly due to the fact that she

was raised as morally “right”. She was raised by Mrs. Sayers to perceive sex as morally wrong,

and as such, she was initially not able to perform the role of black swan because of it being

sensual, something that is “alien” to her. Lily was the one that filled up the void of Nina, mainly
because she was the one that opened Nina’s world to sensual things, ultimately leading to Nina

being able to perform the role of black swan.

The ego is the part that acts as balance between the first two principles, with it being also

called as the reality principle. Nina acts as the ego in the film, with her balancing out morally

upright upbringing of her mother and the sensual “point of view” of Lily. She had a hard time

adapting to the role of black swan because she was raised as morally upright, and found Lily’s

antics as disturbing at first. But she eventually warmed up to the thought, and at the end, was

able to perform the role of black swan excellently.

The end of the film involves the white swan’s role dying, with Nina really dying for the

last scene, wherein her last line was “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect.” The last line is as

significant as the presence of three psychological aspects because it symbolically shows that

Nina already achieved peace within her because of the balancing of her personality within the ID

and superego, with the balance being conveyed through the lines.