SCHIZOPHRENIA ON THE MAIN CHARACTER OF

SHUTTER ISLAND FILM BASED ON SIGMUND

FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY

By:

GOFUR
NIM. 208026000004

ENGLISH LETTER DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES
UIN SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2012
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

1
According to Pickering, literature means, “The creation of literature is a uniquely

human activity, born of man’s timeless desire to understand, express, and finally share

experiences. Initially the literary impulse is quiet, contemplative, and private – existing only

in the human consciousness and imagination.” Of the following statements, literature or

literary is a disclosure of the facts of artistic and imaginative as manifestation of human life

through the language as a medium. Meanwhile, in literary work has a variety of forms of

writing, drama, until the film is a new invention.

Film is a new technology that emerged in the late nineteenth century. Film acts as a

new facility that is used to distribute entertainment that has become a habit early, and

presenting stories, events, musics, drama, comedy, and the other technical presentation to

general public. 2The tremendous expense involved in producing motion pictures reminds us

that film is both an industry and an art form. Each film is the child of a turbulent marriage

between business people and artists. Yet despite an ongoing battle between aesthetic and

commercial considerations, film is recognized as a unique and powerful art form on a par

with painting, sculpture, music, literature, and drama.

1
James H. Pickering, Concise Companion to Literature, (New York: Macmillan, 1981), h.1.
2
Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, The Art of Watching Film: Seven Edition, (New York: McGraw-Hill,
2008), h.3.

2
 The themes in the film that appeared at this time is very diverse, ranging from

romance, drugs, nightlife, family, humor and horror. Various themes are brought to the

surface is not only based on the author's mind the story but a lot of these films-describe or

retell about the phenomenon that was much talked about community. This phenomenon is

general in nature there are some that are still taboo or is still rarely discussed in general by

the public, like a film about mental disorders is schizophrenia.

3
According to James, “Schizophrenia is a general term referring to a group of severe

mental disorders marked by a splitting, or disintegration, of the personality. The most

striking clinical features include general psycological disharmony, emotional

impoverishment, dilapidation of thought processes, absence of social rapport, delusions,

hallucinations, and peculiarities of conduct.”

One of film that its theme about schizophrenia is the Shutter Island. This film is

directed by Martin Scorsese tells the story of a mental patient named Andrew Laeddis.

Andrew is a war veteran who experienced adverse events in the family. He has suffered

mental disorder since he killed his wife who happens to killing their children.

Andrew had this mental disorder with a felt he was a detective. He wanted to settle

the case on an island which is a psychiatric hospital of the island. Andrew believes that he is

Teddy Daniels, a detective who will investigate the case of a patient's escape at the hospital,

Rachel Solando. Even though, all he does is the result of mental disorder suffered.

In Shutter Island film made based on psychology in order ot get more attention to the

world about schizophrenia that occurred in this film. In this film many found the action or

3
James D. Page, Abnormal Psychology, (New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company LTD, 1947), h.236.

3
 dialogue that reflects the schizophrenia of Andrew. Therefore, the writer is interested to

choose this film as research material. The writer would like to exploit even further as to

whether schizophrenia is presented in this film.

B. Focus of the Study

Based on background of the issues that have been described previously, then the

writer will limit the issues in this study with a focus on dialogue, setting, and behavior in the

Shutter Island film so that it can be seen form of schizophrenia that was featured in the film.

C. Research Question

Based on research focus above, so the writer formulate the problem into the following

questions:

1. How is the main character depicted in the film?

2. How is the main character’s schizophrenia problem seen from Freud’s Psychoanalysis

theory?

4
D. Objectives of the Study

Based on the research questions above, then the purpose of this study was to

determine the form of schizophrenia that portrayed in the Shutter Island film.

E. Significances of the Study

1. Theoritical

Hopefully, the result of this study can be used as an addition to the insight and

knowledge as a student at department of English and Literature Syarif Hidayatullah State

Islamic University.

2. Practical

a. One of the most important things of this research is to that the public can know the

persistence of schizophrenia.

b. For academics, the writer also hope that in this study could be a reference for

students who want to study and examine case studies of schizophrenia presented in

this film.

5
F. Methodology of Study

1. The Method of Research

Based on the research question above, so the method that is used in this research

is a qualitative method. The writer will analise the dialogue and scenes in Shutter Island

film as a data to be processed to know what schizophrenia it is.

2. The Data Analysis

The collected data are dialogue will be analysed and showed by using research

theory that is used, the theory is psychoanalysis.

3. The Research Instrument

The instrument of this research is the writer himself. The writer watch the film,

read the script and collect the data and theory time after time.

4. The Unit of Analysis

The Unit of analysis that is used in this research is Shutter Island (2010) that is

directed by Martin Scorsese and the figures are Leonardo DiCaprio (Teddy Daniels),

Mark Ruffalo (Chuck Aule), Ben Kingsley (Dr. Cawley), Max von Sydow (Dr. Jeremiah

6
 Naehring), Michelle Williams (Dolores), Emily Mortimer (Rachel 1), Patricia Clarkson

(Rachel 2) and Jackie Earle Haley (George Noyce).

G. Time and Place of the Research

The writer starts doing the research when the writer studied at seventh semesters

at English Letters Department of Adab and Humanity Faculty, Islamic State University

Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Moreover, the research is located at English Department and

main Library of UIN and other libraries, which can give references and informations

about the needed materials.

7
 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. FILM

According to Boggs, Film has properties that set it apart from painting, sculpture,

novels, and plays. It is also, in its most popular and powerful form, a storytelling

medium that shares many elements with the short story and the novel. And because

film presents its stories in dramatic form, it has even more in common with the

stage play: Both plays and movies act out or dramatize, show rather than tell, what

happens. 4

Unlike the novel, short story, or play, however, film is not handy to study; it

cannot be effectively frozen on the printed page. The novel and short story are relatively

easy to study because they are written to be read. The stage play is slightly more difficult

to study because it is written to be performed. But plays are printed, and because they

rely heavily on the spoken word, imaginative readers can conjure up at least a pale

imitation of the experience they might have watching a performance on stage. This

cannot be said of the screenplay, for a film depends greatly on visual and other nonverbal

elements that are not easily expressed in writing. The screenplay requires so much filling

in by our imagination that we cannot really approximate the experience of a film by read-

4
Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, The Art of Watching Film: Seven Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 41.

8
 ing a screenplay, and reading a screenplay is worthwhile only if we have already seen the

film. Thus, most screenplays are published not to be read but rather to be remembered.

Still, film should not be ignored because studying it requires extra effort. And

the fact that we do not generally read films does not mean we should ignore the principles

of literary or dramatic analysis when we see a film. Literature and films do share and

communicate many elements in similar ways. Perceptive film analysis rests on the

principles used in literary analysis. Therefore, before we turn to the unique elements of

film, we need to look into the elements that film shares with any good story.

Dividing film into its various elements for analysis is a somewhat artificial

process, for the elements of any art form never exist in isolation. It is impossible, for

example, to isolate plot from character: Events influence people, and people influence

events; the two are always closely interwoven in any fictional, dramatic, or cinematic

work. Nevertheless, the analytical method uses such a fragmenting technique for ease

and convenience. But it does so with the assumption that we can study these elements

in isolation without losing sight of their interdependence or their relationship to the

whole.

B. CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION

From the discussion before, film is a work that display a story in the form of

audiovisual. A story definitely has elements of character and characterization. In the film,

character and characterization are also display as works of literature.

9
 Pickering explained that, the term character applies to any individual in a literary

work. For purpose of anaylisis, characters in fiction are customarily describe by their

relationship to plot, by the degree of development they are given by the author, and by

wether or not they undergo significant character change. 5 According to the statement,

character are depressed by individuals who are in a literary work.

According to Robert Diyanni, Character in fiction can be conveniently classified

as major and minor, static and dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the

center of the story’s action or theme. The major character is sometimes called a

protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist may spark the story’s conflict. Supporting

the major character are one or more secondary or minor character whose function is

partly to illmunate the major character. Minor character are often static or unchanging:

they remain the same from the beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic character, on the

other hand, exhibit some kind of change – of attitude, of purpose, of behavior – as the

story progress. 6

Based on the description above, character in fiction can be conveniently classified

as major character, minor character, static and dinamic character. The main character or a

major character role in the formation of the story or a theme. Meanwhile, Minor

Character only serves as a supporting character in a story. Character or the main figure

has a role in the story as the man who has opposed the protagonist and antagonist roles.

While, the character are static and dynamics kinds of developments or changes in a story.

Dynamic character is a character that shows the changing patterns of thought, purpose

and behavior in the development of the story is the character that shows from the change
5
James H. Pickering, Concise Companion to Literature (New York: Macmillan, 1981), 24.
6
Robert Diyanni, Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2004), 54.

10
 in mindset, goals and behavior in the development of the story. Static character is the

character that does not change.

Characterization is the means by which writers present and reveal character. The

method of characterization is narrative decription with explicit judgment. We are given

facts and interpretive comment. For example: she was a butchers daughter (fact), she was

a determined woman (comment). From both fact and comment we derive an impression

of a strong woman, one who can take care of herself.7

To be interested in the film as a whole, characters must seem real, understandable,

and worth caring about. For the most part, the characters in a story are believable in the

same way that the story is believable. In the other words, they conform to the laws of

probability and necessity (by reflecting externally observable truth about human nature),

they conform to some inner truth (man as we want him to be), or they are made to seem

real by the convincing art of the actor. There are many ways to know the

characterization’s analysis in the film according to Boggs, among this are:8

1. Characterization Through Appearance

How the actor look and what kind of clothes he/she wear are the main aspects of

the caracterization. These aspects can be displayed with one of mise-en-scene. The

techniques use to arrange everything in the film in order to makes meaningful frames or

shot. The aspects of mis-en-scene are lighting, setting, color, costume, make-up, facial

7
Ibid, p.55
8
Boggs, Joseph M and Dennis W. Petrie. The Art of Watching Films (USA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000), p.
60.

11
 mimic and the behavior of figures. The first visual impression may be proven erroneous

as the story progresses, but it is certainly an important means of establishing character.

2. Characterization Through Dialogue

In the film, the characters expose themselves by what action and how they talk.

The words choices, the tone, the stress of voices express their minds, attitudes and

emotions virtually. Furthermore the used of grammar, structure of sentence, vocabulary,

and certain dialect reveal social economy level of the character, educational background

and the mental processes.

3. Characterization Through External Action

The characters in the film are instruments of establishing the plot. They have main

purpose in the story therefore they will do everything to achieve it. These actions are

called motives which reveal their personalities. Sometimes, the most effective

characterization is achieved not by the large actions but by the small ones that seems

insignificant. Thus, there should be a clear relationship between a character and his or her

actions; the actions should grow naturally out of the character’s personality. It means that

the personalities will decide how the character acts to gain their purpose.

4. Characterization Through Internal Action

Internal action is the character’s mind and emotion that contain secrets, unspoken

thoughts, daydreams, aspirations, memories, fears, and fantasies. All of them appear

visually in the film. The director can illustrate the character’s imagination or mind by

technique of shot. The filmmaker utilizes the shot of close-up on an unusually sensitive

12
 and expressive face to illustrate the inner action of character. This technique is called by

distance camera.

5. Characterization Through Reactions of Other Characters

The characterization of the character can be observer by the point of view from

others characters. Sometimes at the beginning of scene, a character’s information has

already been revealed by other characters before he/she appears on the screen.

6. Characterization Through Contrast: Dramatic Foils

One of most effective techniques of characterization is the use of foils that

contrasting characters whose behavior, attitudes, opinions, lifestyle, physical appearance,

and so on are the opposite of those of the main characters. The effect is similar to that

achieved by putting black and white together, the black appears blacker and the white

appears whiter.

7. Characterization Through Choice of Name

One important method of characterization is the use of names possessing

appropriate qualities of sound, meaning, or connotation. This technique is known as name

typing. A screenwriter usually thinks over the choice of characters’ names very carefully

because that deals greatly with characters’ thought and personality in the film.

C. PSYCHOANALYSIS

13
 Literary criticism in the film can be studied through the analysis of the character.

Analysis of the characters in the film can be analysed on the personality of the character

or character’s thought. As this study is about the main character's personality analysis

based on the theory of psychoanalysis.

Psychological theories of the most widely referred to in the psychological

approach or the most dominant in the analysis of literary works is the theory of

psychoanalysis by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). This theory is a

method of medical treatment for people suffering from neurological disorders.

Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy aims to treat someone who had mental disorders and

anxiety.

In the beginning of its development psychoanalysis was a branch of medicine and

its aim was to cure sickness. The patients coming to the psychoanalysis suffered from

symptoms which interfered with their functioning in everyday life: such symptoms were

expressed in ritualistic cumpulsions, obsessional thoughts, phobias, paranoid thought

systems, and so on.9

Furthermore, psychoanalysis is the unconscious psychology, attention-attention

directed toward the areas of motivation, emotion, conflict, simpton-simpton neurotic,

dreams, and character traits. 10Sigmund Freud’s theory about the existence of unconscious

and conscious parts of the psyche, or mind, had began to take shape in the late 1800s. He

9
Fromm, Erich. Psychoanalysis and Religion (New haven & London: Yale University Press, 1950/1974), p.65.
10
Frank B. McMahon and Judith W. McMahon, Abnormal Behavior; Psychology’s View: Revised Edition (Illinois: THE
DORSEY PRESS, 1983), p. 70.

14
 believed that the behaviour of the hysteric, for example psychological paralysis, arises

from unknown and unresolved conflictsresiding in the unconscious.

After the writer described about psychoanalisis. Then, the writer will explain

about psychoanalisis terms which are used in this research. Kajian psikoanalisis dalam

penelitian kali ini adalah sebagai berikut;

1. LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE

Figure 1. Levels of Mental Life.

15
 Freud’s geatest contribution to personality theory is his exploration of the

unconcious and his insistence that people are motivated primarily by droves of which

they have little or no awareness. To Freud mental life is divided into two levels, the

unconscious and conscious. The unconscious in turn, has two different levels, the

unconscious propper and preconscious.

Unconscious

The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond

our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feeling, and actions.

Although we may be conscious of our overt behaviours, we often are not aware of the

mental processes that lie behind them. For example, a man may know that he is

attracted a woman but may not fully understand all the reasons for the attraction,

some of which may even seem irrational.11

Preconscious

The content of the preconscious come from two sources, the first of which is

conscious perception. What a person perceives is conscious for only a transitory

period; it quickly passes into the preconscious when the focus of attention shifts to an

other idea. These ideas that alternate easily being between conscious and

preconscious are largely free from anxiety and in reality are much more similar to the

conscious images than to unconscious urges.12

The second source of preconscious image is the unconscious. Freud believes

that ideas can slip past the vigilant censor and enter into the preconscious in a
11
Gregroy J. Feist, Theories of Personality; Sixth Edition (New York: The Mc Graw-Hill company, 2006), p. 24.
12
Ibid,. p. 25.

16
 disguised form. Some of these images never become conscious because if we

recognized them as derivates of the unconscious, we would experience increased

levels of anxiety, which would activate the final censor to represses these anxiet-

loaded images, forcing them back into the unconscious. Other images from the

unconscious do gain admission to consciousness, but only because their true nature is

cleverly disguised through the dream process, a slip of the tongue, or an elaborate

defensive measure.

Conscious

Conciousness, which plays a relatively minor role in psychoanalytic theory,

can be defined as those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time. It is

the only level of mental life directly available to us. Ideas can reach consciousness

from two different directions. The first is from the perceptual conscious system,

which is turned toward the outer world and acts as a medium for the perception of

external stimuli.13

The second source of conscious elements is from within the mental structure

and includes nonthreatening ideas from the preconscious as well as menacing but

well-disguised images from the unconscious. As we have seen, these latter images

escaped into the preconcious by cloaking themselves as harmless elements and

evading the primary censor. Once, in the preconscious, they avoid a final censor and

come under they of consciousness. By the time they reach the conscious system,

these images are greatly distorted and camouflaged, often taking the form of

defensive behaviors or dream elements.

13
Gregroy J. Feist, Theories of Personality; Sixth Edition (New York: The Mc Graw-Hill company, 2006), p. 25-26.

17
 2. HUMAN STRUCTURE

Before talking about schizophrenia, the writer will describe about structure of

personality. Freud posited that the personality consists of three parts: id (das Es), ego (das

Ich) and superego (das Uber-Ich). 14The terms ego, superego, and id may seem almost

commonplace to you; they have been around so long that they have earned a place in

everyday language, and they are still quite prominent in the present-day jargon of mental

health workers. To put it briefly, and to greatly oversimplify, the id is the psychic structure

that contains all our animal instincts and base desires; the superego holds the dictates

and restraints of society, and it is our consciense and the pull to better ourselves morally;

and the ego is the part of us that must deal with the real world and also keep the demands

of both the id and superego in balance.

Figure 1.2 Freud’s Structure of Personality

The Id

14
Frank B. McMahon and Judith W. McMahon, Abnormal Behavior; Psychology’s View: Revised Edition (Illinois: THE
DORSEY PRESS, 1983), 71.

18
 At the core of personality and completely unconscious is the psychical region

called the id, a term derived from the impersonal pronoun meaning “the it,” or the not-

yet-owned component of personality. The id has no contact with reality, yet it strives

constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires. Because its sole function is to

seek pleasure, we say that the id serves the pleasure principle.15

A newborn infant is the personification of an id unencumbered by restrictions of

ego and superego. The infant seeks gratification of needs without regard for what is

possible (that is, demands of the ego) or what is proper (that is, restrains of the superego).

Instead, it sucks when the nipple is either present or absent and gains pleasure in either

situation. Although the infant receives life-sustaining food only by sucking a nurturing

nipple, it continues to suck because its id is not in contact with reality. The infant fails to

realize that thumb-sucking behavior cannot sustain life. Because the id has no direct

contact with reality, it is not altered by the passage of time or by the experiences of the

person.

Besides being unrealistic and pleasure seeking, the id is illogical and can

simultaneously entertain incompatible ideas. For example, a woman may show conscious

love for her mother while unconsciously wishing to destroy her. These opposing desires

are possible because the id has no morality; that is, it cannot make value judgements or

distiguish between good and evil.

In review, the id is primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness,

unchangeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized, and filled with energy received from basic

drives and discharged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle.

15
Gregroy J. Feist, Theories of Personality; Sixth Edition (New York: The Mc Graw-Hill company, 2006), p. 27.

19
 As the region the houses basic drives (primary motivates), the id operates through

the primary process. Because it blindly seeks to satisfy the pleasure principle, its survival

is dependent on the development of a secondary process to bring it into contact with the

external world. This secondary process functions through the ego.

The Ego

The ego, or I, is the only region of the mind in contact with reality. It grows out of

the id during infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the

external world. It is governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for the

pleasure principle of the id. As the sole region of the mind in contact with the external

world, the ego becomes the decision-making or executive branch of personality.

However, because it is partly conscious, partly preconcious, and partly unconcious, the

ego can make decisions on each of these three levels. For instance, a woman’s ego may

consciously motivate her to choose excessively neat, well-tailored clothes because she

feels comfortable when well dressed. At the same time, she may be only dimly (i.e,

preconsciously) aware of previous experiences of being rewarded for choosing nice

clothes. In addition, she may be unconsciously motivated to be excessively neat and

orderly due to early childhood experiences of toilet training. Thus, her decision to wear

neat clothes can take place in all three levels of mental life.16

When performing its cognitive and intellectual functions, the ego must take into

consideration, the incompatible but equally unrealistic demands of the id and the

superego. In addition in these two tyrants, the ego must serve third master – the external

16
Gregroy J. Feist, Theories of Personality; Sixth Edition (New York: The Mc Graw-Hill company, 2006), p. 29.

20
world. Thus, the ego constantly tries to reconcile the blind, irrational claims of the id and

the superego with the realistic demands of the external world. Finding itself surrounded

on three sides by divergent and hostile forces, the ego reacts in a predictable manner – it

becomes anxious.

According to Freud, the ego becomes differentiated from the id when infants learn

to distinguish themselves from the outer world. While the id remains unchanged, the ego

continues to develop strategies for handling the id’s unrealistic and unrelenting demands

for pleasure. At times ego can control the powerful, pleasure-seeking id, but at other

times it loses control. In comparing the ego to the id, Freud used the analogy of a person

on horseback. The rider checks and inhibits the greater strength of the horse but is

ultimately at the mercy of the animal. Similarly, the ego must check and inhibit id

impulses, but it is more or less constantly at the mercy of the stronger but more poorly

organized id. The ego has no strength of its own but borrows energy from the id. Inspite

of this dependence on the id, the ego sometimes comes close to gaining complete control,

for instance, during the prime of life of a psychologically mature person.

As children begin to experience parental rewards and punishments, they learn

what to do in order to gain pleasure and avoid pain. At this young age, pleasure and pain

are ego functions because children have not yet developed a conscience and ego-ideal:

that is, a superego. As children reach the age of 5 or 6 years, they identify with their

parents and begin to learn what they should and should not do. This is the origin of

superego.

The Superego

21
 In Freudian psychology, the superego, or above-I, represents the moral and

aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed

to the pleasure principle of the id and the realistic principles of the ego. The superego

grows out the ego, and like the ego, it has no energy of its own. However, the superego

differs from the ego in one important respect – it has no contact with the outside world

and therefore is unrealistic in its demands for profection.17

The Superego has two subsystems, the conscience and the ego-ideal freud did not

clearly distinguish between these two functions, but, in general, the conscience results

from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we should

not do, whereas the ego-ideal develops from experiences with rewards for proper

behavior and tell us what we should do. A primitive conscience comes into existence

when a child conforms to parental standards out of fear of loss of love or approval. Later,

during the Oedipal phase of development, these ideal are internalized through

identification with the mother and father.

A well developed superego acts to control sexual and agressive impulses through

the process of repression. It cannot produce repressions bu itself, but it can order the ego

to do so. The superego watches closely over the ego, judging its actions and intentions.

Guilt is the result when the ego acts – or even intends to act – contrary to the moral

standards of the superego. Feelings of inferiority arise when the ego is unable to meet the

superego standards of perfection. Guilt, then, is a function of the conscience, whereas

inferiority feeling stem from the ego-ideal.

17
Gregroy J. Feist, Theories of Personality; Sixth Edition (New York: The Mc Graw-Hill company, 2006), p. 30.

22
 The superego is not concerned with the happiness of the ego. It strive blindly and

unrealistically toward perfection. It is unrealistic in the sense that it does not take into

consideration the difficulties or impossibilities faced by the ego in carrying out its orders.

Not all its demands, of course, are impossible to fulfill. The superego, however, is like the

id in that it is completely ignorant of, and unconcerned with, the practicability of its

requirements.

Freud pointed out that the divisions among the different regions of the mind are

not sharp and well defined. The development of the three divisions varios widely in

different individuals. For some people, the superego does not grow after childhood; for

others, the superego may dominate the personality at the cost of guilt and inferiority

feelings. For yet others, the ego and superego may take turns controlling personality,

which results in extreme fluctuations of moods and alternating cycles of self-confidence

and self-deprecation. In the healthy individual, the id and superego are integrated into a

smooth functioning ego and operate in harmony and with a minimum of conflict. Figure

1.1 shows the relationships among id, ego, and superego in three hypothetical persons.

For the first person, the id dominates a weak ego and a feeble superego, preventing the

ego from counterbalancing its incessant demands of the id and leaving the person nearly

constantly striving for pleasure regardless of what is possible or proper. The second

person, with strong feelings of either guilt or inferiority and a weak ego, will experience

many conflicts because the ego cannot arbitrate the strong but opposing demands of the

superego and the id. The third person, with a strong ego that has incorporated many of the

demands of both the id and the superego, is psychologically healthy and in control of

both the pleasure principle and the moralistic principle.

23
 Figure 1.3 The relationship among id, ego and superego in three hypothetical persons.

D. SCHIZOPHRENIA

From foregoing discussion, Freud divides structure of personality into three parts;

id, ego dan superego. Whereas he viewed neurosis as a conflict between the ego and the

id, he regarded psychosis as a conflict between the ego and the external world. Psychosis

involved a disavowal and subsequent remodeling of reality. Despite this revision, Freud

continued to speak of the withdrawal of cathexis and its reinvestment in the ego. He used

the withdrawal of object of cathexis to explain his observation that, compared with

neurotic patients, schizophrenic patients were incapable of forming transferences.18

Freud defined schizophrenia as a regression in response to intense frustration and

conflict with others. This regression from object relatedness to an autoerotic stage of

development was accompanied by a withdrawal of emotional investment from object

18
Glen O. Gabbard, M. D., Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practise; Fourth Edition (Washington DC: American
Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2005), p. 184.

24
 representations and from external figures, which explained the appearance of autistic

withdrawal in schizophrenia patients. Freud postulated that the patient’s cathexis was

then reinvested in the self or ego.19

1. THE MAJOR TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Four main types of schizophrenia are generally recognized: simple, hebephrenic,

catatonic, and paranoid. 20

a. Simple Schizophrenia

The key symptom is apathy. Unless pushed by relatives or motivated by some

people psycological drive, these patients are content to remain in bed totally inactive day

after day. Their fundamental wish is to be left alone. Personal hygieneis completely

neglected. They rarely bathe and are untidy in appearance and dress. Motor responses are

sluggish. They seldom converse except in barely audible monosyllables. Whenever

possible, they substitute a nod of the head for a verbal response. Interest in personal

reputation, family welfare, and external events in nil. Apart from their listless and often

amoral mode of living, they exhibit few abnormal symptoms. Hallucinations, delusions,

and peculiar actions are lacking.

b. Hebephrenic Schizophrenia

Emotional, shallowness, tendency to childish silliness, bizarre delusions,

hallucinations, jumbled speech, and gross disintegration of the personality are the

prominent symptoms. In response to thoughts and ideas originating within their

19
Ibid.
20
James D. Page, Abnormal Psychology (New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company LTD, 1947), p. 245-255.

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disordered minds, hebephrenics perodically have giggling spells that may alternate with

outburts of anger or affectless crying. Oblivious to their surroundings, they contentedly

spend hours talking and smiling to themselves or conversing with imaginary persons.

Many see heavenly visions and hallucinate peculiars odors. In the early stages,

hebephrenics may be communicative but it is impossible to conduct a normal

conversation with them. If they respond at all to direct questions, their comments are

usually inappropriate and nonsensical. Thinking as indicated by speech and writing is

confused and disconnected. Words are indiscriminately mixed together. Several

independent ideas may be telescoped into one sentence.

c. Catatonic Schizophrenia

As compared with other forms of schizophrenia, which usually are insidious in

their onset, catatonia is frequently abrupt. The most common reaction is one of under

activity, or catatonic stupor. Mildly stuporous patients are uncommunicative or speak in a

monotous voice. They have expressionless faces and require prompting and assistance in

dressing and eating. Some assume peculiar postures and maintain them for long periods.

The stiff, erect pose of a soldier is a favorite.

d. Paranoid Schizophrenia

Paranoid patients are suspicious, sensitive, egocentric individuals whose lives

revolve about the theme of persecution. They imagine that people are against them and in

devious ways are maltreating or plotting against them. At first their delusions of

persecution are limited and fairly well systematized and their attitude toward the world is

one of emotional aggressiveness. Later their delusions become numerous, incoherent, and

absurd, and their aggresiveness subsides.

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 The delusions of paranoid are reinforced by persecutory hallucinations. They hear

enemies calling them named and threatening them, see faces at night, taste poison in

food, feel currents operating on their bodies, and are overcome by the peculiar gases

discharged in their rooms. Fear of the omni-present and persistent enemies may

eventually drive the paranoid to homicide as a measure of self-defense, or to suicide as a

form of escape. A homosexual component is detectable in some instances, the delusions

and hallucinations being thinly veiled defense against, or projections of, latent inversion.

In keeping with this interpretation, it is usually noted that male patients have male

persecutors and female patients have female persecutor.

Many paranoids have delusions of grandeur that conveniently “explain” why they

are being persecuted. They are persecuted because others envy their wealth, intelligence,

fame, and family connections. This strange mixture of persecution and grandeur is also

noted in the ideas of reference expressed by many paranoids. Ideas of reference consist in

attaching personal significance to incidental occurrences. An automobile horn

surrounding in the night is to most people a commonplace and meaningless stimulus; but

to a paranoid who regards himself as the center of the universe, the blare is a signal from

his persecutors. Similarly, if a paranoid observes a group of individuals talking together,

he is convinced that they are talking about and against him.

2. SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

We must therefore go only on external symptoms. The most common are: 21

21
Frank B. McMahon and Judith W. McMahon, Abnormal Behavior; Psychology’s View: Revised Edition (Illinois: THE
DORSEY PRESS, 1983), 303.

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 Delusions. Incorrect or bizarre beliefs, e.g., that one’s thought are being broadcast

from the head or that thoughts are being inserted into the head from some outside force.

Thought Disorders. Loose assosiations and shifting of thoughts. Juxtaposition of

sentences and thoughts that don’t belong together. (some believe this symptom is the

result of the attentional defects mentioned above.)

Hallucinations. Hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling something that is not there.

Most common are auditory hallucinations (noises or voices from outside the person).

Disturbed Affect. Affect (affect refers to emotional response) is inappropriate,

e.g., laughing at the sad or crying at the happy, or doing either with no apparent

provocation. Or showing little emotion (the terms here are blunting or flattening of affect,

meaning that the normal “edge” we all put on certain emotions, either up or down, is

missing). Or, on occasion, showing too much affect, called heightened affect.

Motor Symptoms. Motor (body) movements are strange and bizarre, as when

one holds the body in a certain position that is unusual or makes hand or head

movements that are quite peculiar. Not uncommon is extreme slowness of movement

with some rigidity, as in a robot, but some of this may be due to medication.

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