Incorporation of the Object on the Example of the Main Character of the Film by Yorgos Lanthimos "Poor Things"

Abstract

The key processes in the formation of psychic instances of the ego and superego are internalization mechanisms: incorporation, introjection and identification. The article's authors examine each process in detail, considering the stage of the subject's development, and pay special attention to how primitive internalization mechanisms – incorporation and introjection – can become pathological in the absence of a good maternal figure, contributing to the formation of a psychotic core in a person's psyche. Based on this theoretical foundation, the authors undertake a psychoanalytic examination of the film "Poor thing" by Yorgos Lanthimos. The film's main character, Bella Baxter, is a fantastical creature created by a half-mad genius surgeon, Godwin Baxter, through the transplantation of an unborn baby's brain into the body of her mother, who has committed suicide. Bella undergoes a rapid process of psychosexual development, influenced by primary trauma and utilizing incorporation and introjection as primary methods of interaction with external objects. The authors suggest the presence of a psychotic core within Bella's psyche, resulting from the absence of a sufficiently supportive maternal figure during her early developmental stages.