Irish Talusan: THE CURIOUS CASE: PSYCHOANALYSIS OF BENJAMIN BUTT...

Irish Talusan: THE CURIOUS CASE: PSYCHOANALYSIS OF BENJAMIN BUTT...:             Psychoanalyzing a character at text is always done backtracking the early stages of one’s life, the youth. However, t...

The Curious Case: Psychoanalysis of Benjamin Button

            Psychoanalyzing a character at text is always done backtracking the early stages of one’s life, the youth. However, this curious case of Benjamin Button requires a curious exception to that rule. What then are psychological aspects of being old that may have affected his getting young?

The film started with an old woman  (Daisy) on her death bed spending last moments with her daughter (Caroline) who she made to read Benjamin’s diary for the first time. The diary started with Benjamin’s father Tomas Button rushing to his wife who was giving birth. However, upon learning that the wife sacrificed her life to give birth to Benjamin, Tomas' instinct was to get rid of him. At this very point in time, we can see the complexes that the Button family has shown. Looking at the Jungian perspective, the mother who chose her child over self could be a reflection of Jocasta complex for even at her very last breath, her only message to Tomas is to take care of Benjamin. Meanwhile, the only concern of Tomas was his wife and he hated Benjamin for being the reason of her death.  This could be a manifestation of Heracles complex or hatred for children as rival to the attention of wife. Without any thought, Tomas did not consider his superego (subconscious part responsible for moral decision making) and let him be taken over by his Id (natural desire, instinct). He however showed a balancing of his subconscious and ego by opting to leave Benjamin in front of a home for the aged instead. These factors have affected Benjamin Button later on his life.

Theories of psychoanalysis say that one may look at the unconscious, biological, environmental and cultural, factors that may affect one’s behavior (Hall, 2001). Benjamin’s case is very peculiar then. Biologically, he is an old man born with sickness and body properties of a person in his 80s. Unconsciously, his Id or natural desires are for a child. His curiousness is set on wanting to know what is outside. This is added by the environmental factor that he is confined in a house full of old people and a life of routines. A strong manifestation of Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus complex is shown within Benjamin for his love for the woman who adopted him, Queenie. His interaction with Queenie is all about his dependence to her. One scene also shows that Benjamin is usually sleeping beside her “mother” but except when her mother’s lover is going to stay, then he would have no option but to give way. This shaped his relationship with other women in his story later on; for example, his dependence of affection from Daisy, dependence of sexual desire from three different women and constantly going back to the home for the aged where her mama is.

Different cultures that Benjamin got into are the significant players of his behavior. The most dominant is the culture is in the way of life in the home for the aged where Benjamin spent most of his life staying, going out but coming back again. This is the symbol of his psychological space and comfort, his “home”. Here, he grew up (younger) interacting with old people with different stories to tell. One particular old man just keeps on telling how he was struck by lightning seven times but all instances are different every time he tells. He is practically wiser as he gets younger, he learned about death before knowing how to live. One day when a new man in the house took Benjamin out in the streets, Benjamin had a battle with his conscious and unconscious, curiosity or Queenie’s instruction, if he should go on. This was manifested by his actions of being vulnerable and anxious. But he let his curiosity (Id) as a child take over his biological and environmental constraints being old. At the end, he still felt satisfied in fulfilling his desires.

When Queenie got pregnant, Benjamin did not know what to do. He felt a potential sibling rivalry. From then on, his dependent relationship with her mother faded as he goes on with this journey. That’s when he learned to discover and do things by himself, a manifestation that Benjamin is psychologically a follower of his desires. Even though Queenie is her symbol of superego or conscience, external forces and pressures from other people take over him just like the first instance when someone took him out in the streets. This was repeated when he still slept with a prostitute, drank alcohol with a stranger and had an affair with a married woman whenever Queenie is not physically around to depend on.

            From the very start, Benjamin’s relationship with other people are temporary and on temporal spaces. Like the old lady who taught him to play piano then suddenly passed away, the man who took him out of the street the suddenly left the house, the married woman he meets in the hotel lobby every night that just disappeared one day, Captain Mike and his co-sailors in a tugboat who died when war came to them and his father who's looking after him but only from afar. These other characters have their own psychological suppressions as they tell their childhood stories to Benjamin like the group narcissism manifestation of Benjamin’s co-sailor who loves America so much to think it’s the only country in the world. Because of these experiences with people of different stories leaving him, he also felt he was never meant to stay in one place, live only one story or be with someone throughout his life. Benjamin's wisdom and outlook in life are from them.

Ultimately, Benjamin’s personality was shaped by his Mama Queniee and his father Tomas. First, he was raised as a good person by a loving and religious mother. Throughout his life of getting young, his values are still the core within him overshadowing his Id. After all, he has still forgiven his dying father who abandoned him. He made his father let go of the emotional suffering or leaving own son behind (wisdom). Benjamin was able to do so because Queenie, after all he does for the day, would still welcome him in her arms (personality). He chose not to let in into Daisy seducing him because of his respect for her since he know her from she was a little kid and waited for their right moment to be together. And at the end, he left Daisy trusting that she could raise their child the way he was raised by Queenie because aside from the fear of being a burden for of his condition, the unconscious part of Benjamin was that he really did not know what it is to be a father because he never felt he had one. Just as his father did, the Buttons’ gave their wealth for their children. Tomas looked after Tomas from afar wishing things were different just as Benjamin sends postcards from afar to her daughter every year wishing that he is physically there too. True enough, both Benjamin and Caroline just knew their father too late and through the story.  

References:

Berger, A. A. (1995). Cultural Criticism: A Primer of Key Concepts. California: SAGE Publications

Hall, D. E. (2001). Literary and Cultural Theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

(2014, February 18). The Curious Case of Benjamin Button full movie (HD) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-wnz3L1xh0