Prestige TV is full of characters Sigmund Freud would have a field day with. But what does a modern-day psychoanalyst make of the likes of Roman Roy?
In an agonising scene in season three of HBO’s Succession, Roman Roy sends a dick pic to his father, Logan, rather than his on-off romantic interest, Gerri. Logan’s mobile dings, and we cringe as we realise Roman’s mistake. But, psychoanalysts would argue, it is not a mistake – rather it is an aggression caused by unconscious thoughts in a character with an unresolved Oedipus complex.
TV is replete with instances of Freudian psychoanalytical narrative motivating characters’ behaviour and journey: from Succession and The White Lotus to The Flight Attendant and Shrinking. The psychoanalyst’s theories percolate through so much of modern media that you wonder if the writers are unconsciously portraying the same concepts that Sigmund Freud articulated 100 years ago. Which is ironic, given that Freud himself refused to work on movies.
