A ÚLTIMA DANÇA: CISNE NEGRO À LUZ DA PSICANÁLISE

Abstract

The study consists of a film analysis of Cisne Negro (2010) in the light of psychoanalysis. The theoretical investigation started from the guiding question: 'how is the body constituted in psychosis?'. From this, we sought to understand how the notion of body is constructed in psychosis and to investigate the devastation and its specificities in this structure, articulating it with the notion of rapture or wonder. The film illustrates the triggering of Nina's (protagonist) psychosis, which occurs with being called to play the role of Queen of Swans. At that moment, an imperative is established for her to incorporate the two versions of the Swan: the White and the Black. However, the transmutation takes place in her flesh, without any symbolic interpellation that could sustain her, as dance is an imperative of deadly enjoyment for Nina. In psychosis, there is no defined sense of self. In the same way, Nina feels lost: invaded by the jouissance of the Other, she is unable to be anything other than a dancer. She finds herself adrift, constantly in the position of object of love or hatred of this Other. It was found that in psychosis the body is experienced in pieces and that the devastation must be read in dialogue with the phenomena of rapture or dazzle of the body. The process of fragmentation of the body stems from a failure to integrate the body image, called the 'mirror stage', a process of identity formation. Faced with this, the psychotic body is perceived as shattered. At the same time, the issue of the feminine is not inscribed in psychosis (or for Nina), as such questioning only fits into a neurotic structure. The fatal quest for perfection meets the deadly jouissance of the Other who irremediably returns to his body. To stop this invasion, Nina kills herself, updating the tragic ending of the play Swan Lake at the end of the plot.