Slavoj Zizek’s Psychoanalytic Approach To The Study Of Ideology: Analyzing Jaws

Jaws, released in the summer of 1975, redefined what it meant to be a Hollywood movie. It became the highest-grossing film of all time until two years later in 1977 when Star Wars became the model for Hollywood films. Jaws has been interpreted in every imaginable way; from being about the infamous early 1970’s Watergate incident during the Nixon presidency, the notorious atom bomb deployed in Japan, 1945, to patriarchy and immigration. However, what really makes Jaws so great is it’s unrelenting and flawless commitment to the ideology of capitalism. Jaws is, for better or worse, ideological propaganda in its purest form and because it mirrors the society we live in so accurately in such a subtle way, it is oddly satisfying, warm, and powerful. Slavoj Zizek’s psychoanalytic approach to the study of ideology is both controversial and arguably the most innovative contribution to philosophy of the last 50 years. Unlike the German philosopher Marx who thought capitalist ideology was a false consciousness, Zizek argues against it and believes that ideology is consciousness. It presents the topography– the mapping of the world we live in that the mind their mirrors to give itself context and make sense of the world. Zizek once wrote that “ideology is not a dreamlike illusion that we build to escape insupportable reality; in its basic dimension it is a fantasy– construction which serves as a support for our ‘reality’ itself.”

Slavoj Zizek touches on Jaws in the film The Perverts Guide to Ideology where he compares Jaws to the Nazi ideology, which he cites as the most extreme form of ideology. The ordinary German in the 1930s is surrounded by failure; the failure to win the first World War, the failure of capitalism during the Great Depression to sustain the economy, the failure of the Kaiser to protect his citizens. But, capitalism has instability at the heart of its structure; it is not a perfect order but rather it is built on growth and recession, tugging and pulling between employer and employee, the flux between the state and business. Enter the idea of fascism– the idea that despite the chaos that surrounds you, the perfect order can be achieved, immune to any antagonism and classroom, if only you obey and expel the “unpure”. In the case of the Nazis and the Jews, this, Zizek says is how ideology works at its most fundamental level. If only that imaginary thing that is causing trouble can be removed: the Jew, the immigrant, the stranger on welfare, then everything will be fine. The object of dissatisfaction then gets lumped with every obvious negative connotation: they’re dirty, money-grubbing, selfish, ugly, excessive gambling barbarians, and aliens.

Zizek’s ideas based around the Lacanian psychoanalytic view states that the human mind works in a way that gives the illusion of fullness, of completeness, a part of which covers a negative gap that can never really be fulfilled. There is a basic lack in our minds very constitution that drives the mind towards filling that gap. It’s the gap that keeps us in motion, like the treats hanging at the end of the treadmill. This basic structure of the mind is then mirrored in ideology. In Christianity for example, Jesus died for our sins so that we can achieve a fullness in the afterlife; if only we live in a certain prescribed way. For Zizek, as a Marxist, the fundamental antagonism under capitalism is a class struggle against capital. The opening scene of Jaws sets this tone of ideological fantasy, an imaginary fullness, a complete idealistic life: white picket fences, a police chief that fixes swings. The is no threat within those perfect picket fences, there’s no need for “beach closed” signs. The Military March in the opening scenes even sets the tone of uninterrupted order. Spielberg’s genius fondness for traditional painted signs even have a place in film, pointing how everything is in its place; but according to Lacanian psychoanalysis, there is no such thing as this symbolic completeness and the inevitable lack, because it’s painful, is covered by fantasy that temporarily gives the illusion of such completeness. The shark serves as this lack that severs idealized fullness Zizek frequently cites anecdotes but illustrates how impossible contradictions present themselves in everyday life.

“Better safe than sorry,” but “nothing ventured nothing gained.” “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” but you’re also “never too old to learn.” “Birds of a feather flock together” but also “opposites attract.” What’s important is that the human mind is attracted to the single, simple idea that answers everything, that ties everything together in a nice neat bow. Jaws plays on this imaginary fullness; the Town Hall, the scene of idealized direct democracy, which is almost utopian today. And what better way to symbolize the intruder threatening complete freedom than invoking Independence Day and American flags next to the shark jaw stand? But the threat of closing the beach serves as the nightmare of the gap, of the lack, of that contradiction that can’t be overcome. The real nightmare is not the shock, but the lack of business as a town hall participant says the closing of the beach, “24 hours is like three weeks!” the impossible situation between the threat of death by shark or alternatively, maybe worse, the lack of business is like the contradiction between the opposite aphorisms. Mayor Vaughn represents capitalism in its purest. He can’t fathom the idea of the beach closing, of business suffering. Even Vaughn’s anchor patent jacket symbolizes that he is the corporeal embodiment of the community; he is identifiable with the purest utilitarian profits and interests of Amity Island.

Of course, there are limits to capital in real life; monopolies must be regulated, taxes collected for the welfare of the community, unions formed to protect workers, and Chief Brody becomes the voice of reason that represents all this that balances the sometimes irrational flow of capital, or in this case, the Mayor. Brody represents the state which under capitalism has a monopoly on questions of law, morality, and justice. In the scene where Chrissie Watkins’s mourning mother shows up, the three figures of authority (Capital the State and the Scientist) are confronted with the morning mother dressed in black as she confronts Brody for knowing about the death of her daughter. It wasn’t necessarily Brody’s fault that the beaches weren’t closed, but he’s the one that gets slapped because the state is the place where questions of morality have their final jurisdiction. The responsibility ultimately falls on Brody’s shoulders. He is then faced with the realization that the right thing to do will still come with consequences. If the beach is closed, people starve, if they stay open, people get eaten. of course, the next thing to do rationally is to consult science: empirical facts, the data. But as it turns out science has the ability to describe, but not to act because facts aren’t moral. This is exhibited in the scene where Brody and the scientist, Hooper, are out a night trying to catch the shark. Brody compares the crime rate in New York, with all the violence, muggings and the fact that “kids can’t leave the house, you gotta walk them to school,” to the morality in Amity where one man’s morals can make a difference since “in [the past] 25 years there’s never been a shooting or a murder in this town.” In reality, these contradictions can’t be resolved; they’re structural.

But according to Lacan, the mind does a good job of fantasizing ways, of overcoming them, and this provides us with what he calls “imaginary structure.” When the character Quint enters from outside the structural order, he is an uncomfortable presence. He doesn’t fit into society, but he doesn’t fit into society for the exact reasons that society needs him now. Quint lives outside the moral code, but the moral code, the law according to Lacan, relies on an excess, a stain, a fantasy that holds the law in place, gives it its reason to be. We have to be able to fantasize of ways to transgress the law, to give the law its meaning, and Quint is that transgression. Quint represents the drinking, and the smoking, and the fighting, and the prostituting that has to be experienced by someone, something, some fantasy to remind society why they cannot do those things all the time. He wants the Brandy, the caviar, the color TV, the bow-legged women; all the excesses of capitalism. This transgression then is both excluded and included in the moral order. At the same time, Zizek’s ideas about ideology don’t just apply to capitalism. Zizek argues that while the fundamental antagonism under capitalism is a class struggle, under totalitarian communism exists because the party, the state has a monopoly on everything practically and morally and so cannot admit to its own faults or failures. This logic plays out in the trial of the communist leader Bukharin in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The accusations of attempted murder of Stalin against Bukharin were false, however, he knew he had to admit guilt for the good of the Communist ideal, despite knowing he’s innocent. Stalin’s show trials had to be visible as he had to be seen to be dealing with the problems that people faced so that they didn’t lose faith in the system.

Bukharin’s crimes, like Quint, are a fantasy developed to deal with an impossible situation. Because Quint is immune from the rules of society, he has the capacity to deal with the impossible contradiction. He is the fantasy that there will always be something, some way of getting out of an impossible situation; Quint is a fiction. this is why Quint is the fantasy element that covers the antagonism because when it comes to realizing the fantasy, it turns out not to be able to solve anything at all as with all fantasies once we act them out they lose their power of attraction. But, ironically, out on the sea away from society, Quint actually cares; another idealized fantasy. You realize then, in the best speech of the film, that Quint is an outsider because he paid the ultimate sacrifice for society and got betrayed in return; linking the shark with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an event that ended a war that tested the limits of the expansion of capital– another contradiction. Ultimately, this outsider that doesn’t play by the rules can’t be the one to save the day. His eccentricities, his unwillingness to listen to reason and science eventually kills him. And to hit home, the impossibility of Quint saving the day, that he is just a fantasy, his death is the worst of the film almost even on dry land.

Eventually, Jaws shows that it is ideology at its purest when it’s the State (Brody), that saves the day; the incorruptible good guy that is the government. This though was in the 70s and today as the power of narratives and what Zizek calls “symbolic efficiency” diminishes. People are less and less inclined to believe in any kind of powerful legitimate authority. The idea of Quint and the shark together, for example, demonstrates the psychological attraction of conspiracy theories to explain the world. A lot of them have the same fundamental structure: that there is something hidden outside of society that both controls and simultaneously has the power to liberate us but it’s impossible to pin down. Zizek writes that “it would be productive to conceive conspiracy theory as a kind of floating signifier which could be appropriated by different political options to obtain a minimal cognitive mapping.” Between 1965 and 1970, the number of shopping malls in America had skyrocketed from 1500 to over 12,000. Before Jaws, the biggest films of the year had traditionally being released in the winter but with air-conditioned mega shopping centers and a newly wealthy generation of consumers, Jaws completely changed the landscape of movie promotion. 2.5 million dollars was spent on TV advertising for the film. Still new at the time and the studio’s hit upon the idea of promotional goods jewels t-shirts and ice creams were everywhere. The film experience suddenly became inextricably intertwined with the consumer experience. Because of this, I think the subtle message behind Jaws might just be to ignore the threat of death, ignore the fact that the absent flow of capitalism is out of your control. Continue on, consuming everything. Everything will be okay, everything is under control.