Perversion as Group Psychology: A Reading of Lars Von Trier's 'Dogville'

Psychoanalytic theories have rarely seen perversion as an aspect of group psychology, even though the topic remains popular in the study of individual psychic life. This study attempts to relocate perversion, moving from a one- or two-person psychology towards an understanding that takes into account the important interconnectedness between the individual and the mind of the group. Features of perversion are a common phenomena in the unconscious life of groups---perverse defensive structures, sadomasochistic dynamics as well as specific unconscious phantasies related to perversion---and this study analyzes these elements through a reading of Lars von Trier's film Dogville. Von Trier's film is a powerful illustration of how individual psychopathology and unconscious group dynamics interact in such a way that perverse phantasies ultimately get acted out rather than repressed. This thesis analyzes the particular changes that take place in the group dynamic of Dogville in light of unconscious phantasies involving individuals, couples, sub-groups and the society as a whole.;By combining findings on individual psychopathology and group models, the author suggests that perversion, as an aspect of group psychology, is a rich field of study in which questions such as why groups fall apart, how members use others as objects and what is the function of defenses---can be asked from a new perspective. The author will apply psychoanalytic theories of perversion to the field of group psychology both in order to rethink the term perversion outside of a one-person psychology and to consider how the film represents group dynamics to describe the tyranny of the defensive structure that doesn't allow for relationships to others. The aim of this thesis is to better understand how the perverse defense is activated within group dynamics and how group phantasy plays a role in the mind of individuals employing these defenses, and the ways in which groups manage (or fail to manage) anxieties related to the encounter with otherness and difference.