Inception Essay

Christopher Nolan’s Inception adeptly personifies Dominic Cobb’s psyche as the supporting characters, Mal, Ariadne, and Arthur. The Tripartite concept of the Human Psyche comes from Sigmund Freud’s seminal work “The Formation and Structure of the Human Psyche”. As the audience, we can identify that Arthur plays the ego throughout the film, he remains as a constant personification of Cobb’s personality. Ariadne takes the role of the super ego, or the moral compass. She discerns what is right and wrong, and guides Cobb through decision making and consequences. Mal portrays Cobb’s Id, the primal desires from the deep recesses of his mind. Cobb’s dysfunctional tripartite psyche plays a key role in the events unfolding in the dream layers.

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory states that the unconscious is filled with feelings of pain, anxiety and conflict, these often stem from traumatic experiences and repressed memories. Freud described the mind like an iceberg, where one sevenths of the mind is ‘below
water’. The deepest parts of the mind are described as the Superego and Id: A binary opposite system where the Id seeks immediate satisfaction through desires, needs and wants, whereas the Superego is the culmination of social and cultural guidelines taught to the person, governing what is right and wrong. In inception, these conjectural entities are manifested in the motherly nature of Ariadne as the Superego and Mal as the Id. Ariadne embodies the Superego through her responses and mannerisms. In situations that pose a direct danger to Cobb, Ariadne will present him with a benign but grounding truth, as if she is the ‘voice in his head’ pointing him in the correct direction. Upon discovering Mal in Cobb’s dream, Ariadne says to him “These aren't just dreams, these are memories and you said never to use memories!” We can deduce from this statement that Ariadne is a representation of Cobb’s Superego, as the action of Cobb giving into his desires to be with Mal is counteracted and balanced by Ariadne’s morally driven intent, precisely how the Superego functions in Freud's psychoanalytical theorem.

Mal is a strong representation of Cobb’s Id. His projection of her is full of repressed rage and a longing to be with him that can be seen vividly when Ariadne first encountered her in Cobb’s dream. Mal approached Ariadne and stabbed her through the chest with a metal pipe, this is a graphic portrayal of Cobb’s volatile memories of her and represents an outlet for his Id. Mal’s evil portrayal stems from The events leading up to her death. Mal believed that she was in a dream state, and attempted to wake up from the dream by jumping from a hotel window and falling to her death. Little did she know, Cobb had accidentally seeded the idea in her deep consciousness while dreaming. This filled Cobb with a deep regret and self hatred, resulting in his projection of Mal to be resentful and loathing.

Furthermore, The decision Cobb made to manifest a projection of Mal in his dreams is ultimately destructive. Unbeknownst to him, Mal is a representation of his own Id, thus He has been drawn towards his own gratifying desires. We can infer that, to Cobb, Mal is still ‘alive’ in his psyche. This is supported by a scene nearing the end of the film. Cobb and Ariadne are in limbo, a desolate state of deep subconsciousness. Mal is begging Cobb to stay with her, to stay in limbo. “You betrayed me, but you can make amends… We can still be together, right here” Her desperations for Cobb to stay with her in this scene greatly thicken the consensus that Cobb is driven by a self destructive Id, wishing for him to end his own life to rejoin with his now deceased wife. Cobb is intervened by his Superego, Ariadne, who is now in a pivotal position. She demands he leaves limbo and returns to reality. Again, Ariadne plays the role as Superego, diametrically opposing the dark wishes of Cobb’s Id, or Mal. Inception also has a strong theme that correlates with Freud’s controversial work “Sexual Script Theory”, evident in the polarity between Mal and Ariadne.
This theory is also known as “The Madonna-Whore Complex” The basis of the madonna-whore complex is that sexuality is largely determined by culturally-prescribed scripts, or how we are taught to perceive sexuality. In the modern day western world women are held at a standard of being sexually coy, or unwilling. Freud’s theory develops this into what he believed was a mutually exclusive relationship in which women to whom he was attracted to and desired were disrespected, as they are viewed as a whore for being sexually willing. The madonna is someone that males are not attracted to, and are sexually conservative, thus are respected. Although archaic in ideology and faulted, the sexual script theory gives insight to the dynamic between the two characters Ariadne and Mal and their effects in the plot of
Inception.

Mal is portrayed as a classical seductress, dressed in flowing, revealing ball gowns and speaking in a low, smooth tone. In Freud’s theory, she resides under the banner “whore”. Conversely, Ariadne’s attire is conservative, dressed in jeans and a cardigan. Ariadne holds a voice of authority in the plot-line, thus it can be said she is the “madonna”. The dichotomous nature of their carnal proclivities