Lacanian Reading of the Relationship between Self and Other in Alfred Hitchcock's Cinema (Case Study: Vertigo)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor, Department of Art, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Research Excellence in Art and Entrepreneurship, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

10.22034/scart.2025.139723.1367

Abstract

In Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock presents a meaning for the human subject and how to realize his true image in the other in the form of a tragic and romantic story. Beyond the emotional conflict of the characters, he speaks of the struggle of enormous forces in realizing the image that a person has of himself and shows how and through what origins this image is constructed. From the Lacanian subject, it is also formed in connection with an unfindable loss and through three dimensions. In this regard, the ego, in its external reflection, creates constantly changing images in accordance with the desire of the great other. Accordingly, Scotty's encounter with Madeleine/Judy is read according to Lacan's three dimensions and, using the descriptive-analytical method, the imaginary dimension of the ego and the analysis of the place of the person in his true image in the other are studied. The findings of the research show that Scotty, beyond love, confronts his own concept as a logical and at the same time contradictory contradiction, and thus introduces the audience to the Doll under whose influence the subject is. Hitchcock considers the imaginary embodiment of Madeleine and the symbolic Judy as the necessity of Scotty's existence. In this way, Hitchcock places the other at the foundation of a person's image of himself, transforming it from something personal and unique to something in accordance with the desire of another.

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