Spellbound: A Collision of Art and Psychology

There’s something about Hitchcock’s films that draws me. It may be a misplaced sense of nostalgia, but I suspect it’s because his work piques my inner English student’s desire to analyze. Spellbound is no different. In fact, analyzation is practically its subject.

Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychiatrist working at a mental institution. She’s described as being as stiff as a textbook. She naturally falls in love at first sight with “Dr. Anthony Edwardes” (Gregory Peck), who claims to be the new head of hospital. But Dr. Edwardes is actually an amnesiac who completely falls apart anytime he sees parallel lines disturbing a white surface. Nevertheless, or conceivably because of this, Constance and “Edwardes” are completely enamoured with each other. As they move closer and closer for their first kiss, the scene melts into a beautiful fog and a series of doors opens along a long hallway. It’s so pure, so lovely.

But this is Hitchcock, and there must be a twist in their situation. When the real Dr. Edwardes’s assistant shows up, the jig is up. The imposter is wanted for questioning regarding Edwardes’s murder. “Edwardes” runs off to New York. Knowing only that his initials are J. B., Constance follows him and attempts to analyze him, hoping that his display of guilt over Edwardes’s death is no more than a psychological complex. She enlists the help of her mentor, and J. B. describes his dream.

Salvador Dalí created the dream sequence for the film, and in it Dalí, Freud and Hitchcock are fused into an amazing collision of cultural influences.

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey suggests that Freud became popular in America because of his theories surrounding sexuality. In an essay in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, he writes that “Freud was viewed as a sexual liberator, the commanding general who put the forces of celibacy and puritanism to rout.”

Dalí and the Surrealists were inspired by Freud, as were many filmmakers in the 1940s. Whether this inspiration comes from Freud’s ideas on sex or his use of symbolism in dream analysis or a combination thereof is a topic for another time, but it’s interesting to think about when looking at Spellbound. Dalí often ties sexuality to decay in his artwork, but in Spellbound love and sexual attraction are used as a basis for salvation.

Constance uses Freud to heal J. B., and it’s done with classic Hitchcockian suspense and symbolism. Dalí’s dream sequence adds another layer that makes Spellbound a wonderful blend of art and psychology.