Grizzly Man was a very compelling film, not only in so far as the story of Timothy Treadwell and his life in the North, but on a deeper level as well. While watching the film, I was very intrigued by the development of Timothy’s personality and the depth that the viewer was able to read in through this account of his life with the bears. I found, while watching the film, that Grizzly Man would lend itself very easily to a psychoanalytic criticism through the analysis of Timothy Treadwell. This idea was strengthened by Paul Arthur’s article “Beyond the Limits”. Arthur in fact takes the idea of psychoanalysis one step further, to the point of analyzing Werner Herzog in relation to his documentary as well.
The character development of Treadwell reveals him to be many different entities within one person. He begins as a parallel of a host from a nature show you would find on Animal Planet or Discovery (45). Herzog then establishes him as “Timmy the ‘kind warrior’ who weeps at what he thinks is a dead bee” (46); as the failed actor who “fell into drugs and SoCal surf culture” and invented a new identity for himself (45); as the founder of the Grizzly People and an animal activist; and even arguably as the “alter ego” of Herzog himself, as a “glamorously wacky rebel” (47). The range of characters and personas that stem for Treadwell immediately drew me to a psychological interest in his being.
His troubled past becomes evident several times in the movie, most obviously when Treadwell is talking openly to a ‘fox friend’ about his about his battle with alcoholism. His hatred of mainstream society also becomes quite apparent, if not through his actions alone, then through his constant profession of this fact and his outright rage towards the human element of his otherwise wild and uncultivated environment. With these conclusions, Treadwell’s reasoning for escaping to the wilderness becomes comprehendible.
Society can be seen as Treadwell’s conscious or his ego, the logical, perceivable aspect of his mind. Nature then becomes his unconscious or his id, which is ruled by primitivism and repressed emotional experiences. Arthur reveals this idea when noting that “the terrain inhabited by [Herzog’s] subjects can express inner struggles” (43). Treadwell retreats to his unconscious and is controlled by his id when he is put into a trying situation with his ego, or in reality. The repressed pains of his past build up in his unconscious to a point where they take over and he then connects more easily with his id, which is why he drives himself into nature and away from society.
To delve further into the psychoanalysis of Grizzly Man, we could define Eros and Thanatos, the life and death instincts respectively, through Treadwell’s actions. Herzog first reveals what appears to be Treadwell’s death instinct, merely through the fact that he’s living in such close contact to animals that could kill him with ease. However, he soon develops Treadwell’s Eros, as the viewer begins to understand that his life in nature was actually his escape route from a path of life destruction that he had been on in California, with his alcoholism and depression. Therefore, Treadwell’s voyage into this foreign lifestyle was in fact portraying elements of Eros. However, the pull of Thanatos remains dominant, as Freud would argue, and ultimately controls Treadwell. The close relationship with the grizzly bears reveals the presence of Treadwell’s Thanatos element. He is actually obsessed with the concept of death and, although he attempts to fight the urges at some points in his life, he is eventually consumed by it, quite literally.
The psychoanalytic criticism can transcend the boundaries of the film in order to suggest that the film in fact portrays some unconscious element of Herzog’s mind. Arthur reveals that Herzog is a “self-professed intermediary between opposing worlds” (47), which could suggest that the frontier of reality and film is in fact the border between Herzog’s conscious and unconscious. However, Herzog works to detach himself from this “secret world of the bears” (47) by disagreeing with Treadwell’s view of nature, claiming that the “universe is chaos, hostility, and murder” (47). It would be interesting to look further into Herzog’s life and his body of work to draw more in-depth conclusions on his psychodynamic connection to Grizzly Man or other films.
The character development of Treadwell reveals him to be many different entities within one person. He begins as a parallel of a host from a nature show you would find on Animal Planet or Discovery (45). Herzog then establishes him as “Timmy the ‘kind warrior’ who weeps at what he thinks is a dead bee” (46); as the failed actor who “fell into drugs and SoCal surf culture” and invented a new identity for himself (45); as the founder of the Grizzly People and an animal activist; and even arguably as the “alter ego” of Herzog himself, as a “glamorously wacky rebel” (47). The range of characters and personas that stem for Treadwell immediately drew me to a psychological interest in his being.
His troubled past becomes evident several times in the movie, most obviously when Treadwell is talking openly to a ‘fox friend’ about his about his battle with alcoholism. His hatred of mainstream society also becomes quite apparent, if not through his actions alone, then through his constant profession of this fact and his outright rage towards the human element of his otherwise wild and uncultivated environment. With these conclusions, Treadwell’s reasoning for escaping to the wilderness becomes comprehendible.
Society can be seen as Treadwell’s conscious or his ego, the logical, perceivable aspect of his mind. Nature then becomes his unconscious or his id, which is ruled by primitivism and repressed emotional experiences. Arthur reveals this idea when noting that “the terrain inhabited by [Herzog’s] subjects can express inner struggles” (43). Treadwell retreats to his unconscious and is controlled by his id when he is put into a trying situation with his ego, or in reality. The repressed pains of his past build up in his unconscious to a point where they take over and he then connects more easily with his id, which is why he drives himself into nature and away from society.
To delve further into the psychoanalysis of Grizzly Man, we could define Eros and Thanatos, the life and death instincts respectively, through Treadwell’s actions. Herzog first reveals what appears to be Treadwell’s death instinct, merely through the fact that he’s living in such close contact to animals that could kill him with ease. However, he soon develops Treadwell’s Eros, as the viewer begins to understand that his life in nature was actually his escape route from a path of life destruction that he had been on in California, with his alcoholism and depression. Therefore, Treadwell’s voyage into this foreign lifestyle was in fact portraying elements of Eros. However, the pull of Thanatos remains dominant, as Freud would argue, and ultimately controls Treadwell. The close relationship with the grizzly bears reveals the presence of Treadwell’s Thanatos element. He is actually obsessed with the concept of death and, although he attempts to fight the urges at some points in his life, he is eventually consumed by it, quite literally.
The psychoanalytic criticism can transcend the boundaries of the film in order to suggest that the film in fact portrays some unconscious element of Herzog’s mind. Arthur reveals that Herzog is a “self-professed intermediary between opposing worlds” (47), which could suggest that the frontier of reality and film is in fact the border between Herzog’s conscious and unconscious. However, Herzog works to detach himself from this “secret world of the bears” (47) by disagreeing with Treadwell’s view of nature, claiming that the “universe is chaos, hostility, and murder” (47). It would be interesting to look further into Herzog’s life and his body of work to draw more in-depth conclusions on his psychodynamic connection to Grizzly Man or other films.
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