Vertigo: Beyond the Pleasure Principle?

Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a circular tale of projection and deception, whereby protagonist Scottie repeatedly finds himself reliving the very fears he means to avoid. Perhaps Vertigo is one of Hitchcock’s most successful films because of its psychological accuracy. Despite Hitchcock’s claims of having no knowledge or interest in psychoanalysis, the narrative in Vertigo accurately reflects Freudian ideas of the repetition compulsion, the interpretation of dreams, the Oedipus complex, and the death drive. The spiral is used to symbolize the cyclical nature of trauma, as well as the interplay between death and desire.