However, Cobb says that it is possible to plant an idea within someone’s mind; he does not want to do this though. Saito then tempts Cobb with a promise to remove Cobb’s charges and
send him back to his country, to his home and his children, which results in Cobb’s approval. Cobb assembles his team and finds the other three persons with their own specialties
to work with. Ariadne Page, as an architect, is in charge of designing the world within the three levels of the dreams. Eames Hardy, a professional forger, has to transform himself
into Peter Browning Fischer’s right-hand man in order to get information from Fischer. There is also Yusuf Rao, the chemist who has to make his own special sedative in order for
the team to be able to execute these almost-impossible three levels of dreams. So the team has 5 people to carry out the plan, but Saito insists on joining the team to make sure they do
the job properly; so there are 6 people in total doing the infiltration. The information has been collected; the preparation has been done; it is now the time
to execute the plan. They are now in a flight together with Fischer and succeed in making him fall asleep. The flight goes for 10 hours, which gives them a week in the first dream level, six
months in the second level, and 10 years in the third level. The time seems to be slower in the dream because the mind works more quickly. However, there are many unexpected problems
that happen due to Mal’s interference Mal is the projection of Cobb’s unconscious within the dreams in order to fail the mission. Saito also gets shot in the dream and therefore they are
now racing against the time to complete the mission and return safely into the reality.
3. Literature Review
As stated above, psychoanalysis was first introduced by an Austrian neurologist named Sigmund Freud. He used psychoanalysis in neurology as a therapy to cure mental
disorders “by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious unconscious is the part of the mind beyond consciousness that has a strong influence on our actions elements in
the mind” Barry 97. A lot of people are cynical of his work, but many – especially literary scholars – also consider Freud as one of the significant figures of 20
th
century. Along with Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein, he reformed the conception of human life in
the modern Western Leitch 913. It’s influential because his theory affects the way people think about themselves, whether they are aware of it or not.
Psychoanalysis finds its way in many aspects of human life, such as in medical, social and cultural, also academic aspects Whitehouse-Hart 1. Looking from the field of
psychology, psychoanalysis is no longer considered valid. Psychologists regarded psychoanalysis as merely his subjective interpretations and there is no scientific data to
support it Davis. However, as stated above, literary scholars argued that Freud’s theories are very influential; it is still applied into a variety of disciplines – especially literary criticism.
Thus, the use of psychoanalysis to examine literary works is not uncommon nowadays. It is interesting to know that psychoanalysis was derived from literature and can be
used to examine literature as well. Freud had long taken great pleasure in the arts, particularly literature – plays and novels, fine art and sculpture Kaufman 367. I think his fondness of
literature was the basis for early development of the psychoanalytic criticism. Walden and Poch 113-114 even suggested that Freud’s principles are closely related to literary works
since he was an avid reader. His infamous work, The Interpretation of Dreams is especially related to literature. They suggested that his greatest influence for working this paper was the
first novel that he read. As one literature form, motion pictures – or what we usually called films – have
been analyzed using psychoanalysis in the past few decades. The range of the movies being
analyzed can also very differ. For example, Dumas 40 analyzed 1950s movies – Invaders from Mars
, Robot Monster, and The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T – to find relation with uniformity of cinematic representation in 1950 that reflect the society’s concerns at that time.
Psychoanalytic film analysis also has been applied to the study of horror movies which is popular since mid 1980s onwards. It seems like Hollywood took psychoanalysis seriously.
Nathan G. Hale stated this in his journal – The Rise and Crisis of Psychoanalysis in the United States
– “The number of Hollywood movie stars, directors, and producers who were ‘in analysis’ was legion” Paul 159.
One of the Hollywood directors that belong to the group is Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan, the director and scriptwriter of Inception, has made several works before
that can also be discussed using psychoanalysis such as Memento, The Prestige, and the newest Batman trilogy. The central themes of his movies are usually concerning a
traumatized hero, a dead woman, and a plot involving manipulation and dissimulation Fisher 37. Similarly, Inception also has its main character deal with his trauma and unconscious
throughout the movie. All of Freud’s works based on the notion of unconscious mind beyond
consciousness that has a strong influence upon our actions. Many earlier accounts of the unconscious simply saw the unconscious as a ‘storehouse’ for forgotten memories that may
or may not be remembered again Power 612. Freud, however, extended the range of influence of the unconscious into every aspect of our lives. The idea is that this storehouse is
made from the repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives. Repression is an attempt of forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic
past events, so that they are forced out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the unconscious Barry 97. In simpler words, the unconscious is meant to work as a protecting
force of our mind from tragic or traumatic events. Modell 539 in his journal, Some
Comments on the Freudian Unconscious conveyed the fundamental role of conflicts in the
psychoanalysis; it distinguishes the psychoanalytic unconscious from the totality of unconscious brain processes that are the subject of investigation of neuroscience.
Psychoanalysis deals with observing processes that are unconscious because of conflict. Freud’s notion of unconscious in his native language German has caused some
confusion and debates for some people. In German, the term ‘unconscious’ is supposed to be das Unbewusste
. However, Freud used it interchangeably with das Unterbewusste which is similarly close with das Unbewusste but not identical, because the literal translation for das
Unterbewusste is ‘subconscious’ “Unconscious or Subconscious?”. After a while, he
decided to use ‘unconscious’ to avoid confusion. However, the theory is expanded since then, and nowadays, many scholars used the term subconscious to address the memories which can
be retrieved if attention is paid to them. The subconscious mind lies just below
consciousness, and it can be accessed by raising a question. We can assume that the ‘storehouse’ is very big and there are many rooms inside. The subconscious are the doors that
need certain keys to open the rooms and unleash those certain memories to the consciousness. After the numerous studies on his patient, Freud realized that unconscious often
expresses itself in the form of dreams. The unconscious, though repressed, can never be quelled entirely Rivkin Ryan 391. They emerge in dreams. Thus, Freud came up with his
famous term dreams are royal roads to the unconscious. He then published a book entitled Interpretation of Dreams
in 1900. This book suggests that there are hidden wishes or desires that manifest themselves at night in dreams. The feelings, memories, wishes, or desires which
are repressed and stored in the unconscious are beyond our control. Freud believed that there are two major parts which formed the dream – the manifest
content and the latent content. The manifest content is what the dreamer remembers when
they are awake; what they would consciously describe to someone else when recalling the dream. Freud suggested that the manifest content has no meaning at all because it is a
“disguised representation of what’s underlying the dream – the latent content” “Introduction to Sigmund Freud’s Theory on Dreams”. On the other hand, the latent content – or the
dream-thoughts is the true meaning of the dream. It is the forbidden thoughts and the unconscious desires, or simply said, it is the repressed unconscious itself. These appear in the
manifest content but will be disguised and unrecognisable. Manifest and latent content are tied together in some way. Freud calls the process of transformations which connect up the
two levels the latent content transformed into the manifest content the dream-work freud.org.uk. It means that the dream-work is the mechanism which takes the raw material
of the latent and combines it together into a dream. Freud’s ideas in the book have raised many arguments and comments since its
publication. The theory proposed by Freud has continued to expand years even after hes gone. Maclagan 335 argues that “the exchange between dreaming and the conscious mind is
more flexible and mutual than Freud assumed,” implying that the nature of the dream-work is dynamic
. It is a ‘complicated traffic’, back and forth between conscious and unconscious levels. Not only a manifestation of the locked traumatic memories that can take part in the
dream, but also some conscious or subconscious memory. Another belief that is arisen in these modern days is that dreams influence our
conscious thoughts and actions Power 614. Even though what’s left after waking up is only the manifest content which sometimes is just some little fragments, the emotions or feelings
we experienced in the dreams remain. This feeling affects us in the real world. How many of us joyfully start a day and have a good mood after having a good dream? On the other hand,
how many feel gloomy and reluctant to get up after having a terrible dream? In extreme cases, there are also some people who want to change travel plans after envisioning their
death in a dream about fiery plane crash, like what Morewedge and Norton proposed in their journal research When Dreaming Is Believing: The Motivated Interpretation of Dreams.
Their studies suggested that people exhibit a general belief that dreams hold hidden meaning and, therefore, have a general tendency to interpret their dreams and allow those dreams to
impact their judgment and behaviour. However, not all dreams are interpreted. The dreams that are most likely to be interpreted are the dreams that have the most relevance to one’s life.
Based on the theories above, the writer would like to propose these questions: Are dreams really the royal road to the unconscious that manifested our repressed trauma,
memories, and feelings? And if it is true, do dreams really have an impact towards someone’s life? The writer will examine the events that happened to the characters in Inception in order
to seek for the answers.
4. Discussion
