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The Psychology of the persecutor — With reference to Costa Gavras's film Music Box

1994; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 8; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02668739400700221

1474-9734

Marika Lindbom-Jakobson, Lena Lindgren,

Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

SUMMARY This paper is based on the author's interpretation of the film Music Box by Costa Gavras. The external and internal preconditions in the development of a persecutor are discussed in an attempt to understand the process from a socio-psychological as well as psychoanalytic viewpoint. During crises of a social nature, earlier coping strategies lose their validity, resulting in a narcissistic blow to the individual's ego. Earlier repressed primitive aspects of the personality are reactivated. When the individual is exposed to a totalitarian ideology which promises salvation from anxiety, paranoid processes become anchored and may dominate. The protagonist in the film is approached as a case-study. By reviewing his present and past actions, the process by which the young man became a persecutor is exemplified as well as the long-term effects upon his object relations.