An entire life in one glance: A psychoanalytic reading of revolutionary road

Abstract

This article, starting from an analysis of the film Revolutionary Road (2009; director, Sam Mendes), addresses the topic of conflictuality in relationships between couples, especially in those characterized by intense violence and a relational configuration of the sadomasochistic type. In particular, the film – in highlighting sequential moments in the couple’s life, from its formation through to its tragic conclusion – seems to strengthen the hypothesis that the specific quality of falling in love is a contributing factor in determining the dramatic unfolding of a couple’s relationship. The relationship is characterized by an experience of intense, erotic sensoriality, and by the nature of the unconscious fantasy underlying the bond between the couple that began with the moment of falling in love, a bond in which deep needs for fusion predominate. The presence of this neediness impedes a more adequate working through of the conflicts and the transition to more satisfying ways of relating.

Key words:

• falling in love
• narcissistic couple
• sensoriality
• unconscious fantasy

Notes

1. Nussbaum (2001) devoted a thorough analysis to the birth of Proust’s love for Albertine, beginning from her first glance.

2. Scarfone (2008) goes so far as to state that every perceptual act constitutes evidence of love, because in perception the search for the primary object is renewed. On the other hand, in the long run, every loving investment sets up a reality test that will consequently fail, in that identity of thought is being replaced by that of perception. Scarfone thoroughly analyzed reality testing in Freud’s work and its relationship to love, which the author considers a reality test.

3. A brief theoretical digression: at this level of female psycho‐sexual development, we can locate the process of idealization that, according to Chasseguet‐Smirgel (1964), establishes the change of object, with all the weight that this has on the woman’s fate. Here, as a defense against the anxieties of emptiness and loss, the ghost of the maternal phallus persists, alive and omnipotent. Here the phallic‐penile confusion occurs: the exchange of the penis (of the father/husband/lover) for the phallus, a fantasmatic maternal attribute. The deception lies in the conviction of having found, through the penis, the omnipotent breast of primal fusion.