From Pleasure to Pain: A Psychoanalytic Understanding between Social Control and the Self.

"No, this is wrong. You’re just a girl. Enough, stop it!"

– Officer Kenji Mamiya, Babel (2006).

Ever feel like you're fighting yourself? That powerful, internal urge to do whatever feels good right now is constantly battling the opposing voice in your head that says, "Wait, that's not socially acceptable!" That's the fundamental conflict at the heart of human life. Psychoanalysis calls it the tension between the self (driven by primal, pleasure-seeking urges) and society (enforcing the rules). Basically, your desire for instant gratification clashes with the cold, hard demands of reality. To be a functional, non-destructive adult, you have to learn to muzzle those raw instincts through repression- a necessary, but often painful, process of balancing your unconscious desires with the constraints of the world.

Repression is the primary defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory, defined as the unconscious exclusion of distressing or threatening thoughts, memories, or desires from the conscious mind. It's the psyche's way of protecting itself by forcing unacceptable urges (like aggressive or sexual instincts) out of awareness. This mechanism forms the foundation of the conflict between the individual and society, as our primal drives (the pleasure principle) must be constrained by external reality (the reality principle) for civilization to function (Frosh 1987, p. 46).

The award-winning film Babel, through a psychoanalytic lens, powerfully dramatizes this dualism between pleasure and reality (Iqbal, 2020). The analysis of the characters Yussef, Zahra, and Chieko highlights how sexual desires are repressed for the sake of social interests and cultural production.  For instance, the Moroccan siblings, Yussef and Zahra, find pure pleasure in their exhibitionistic sexual curiosity, declaring it a private matter, "between me and her". However, both their brother and father, acting as the agency of social control, brutally intervene to enforce cultural regulations. This family dynamic demonstrates how the self is stamped with the society's structure, forcing the surrender of the pleasure-seeking self to the external social world (Iqbal, 2020).

In truth, the repression of primal pleasure does not eliminate desire; it forces it to find alternative outlets. When Yussef's direct sexual desire is opposed by both his brother and father, he resorts to masturbation as a substitute for his unsatisfied instinct. Similarly, the deaf-mute Japanese teenager Chieko, facing emotional turbulence and a desperate longing for connection, acts out with inappropriate sexual overtures toward a dentist and a police detective. Each time, she is met with a refusal- the reality of social control, which is imposed even by those who may be unconsciously attracted to her. Her desires, being restricted, contribute to her emotional distress and impulsive behavior.

Ultimately, Babel's characters experience the painful fate of the socialized self. Their stories show that the individual "is not the master of its own home"; pleasure-seeking drives and sexual impulses are restricted to prevent the collapse of civilization (Iqbal, 2020, p.23). The film powerfully reveals the continuing, subtle, and complex dualism between self and society, arguing that repression, though harsh, is the mechanism through which an individual enters the complex reality of human life.