[Safe] in a Narcissistic Closure

Abstract

This article offers an in depth formal analysis of the film Safe (Todd Haynes: 1995) By attending to Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection as the earliest attempts to demarcate a space in the common, indistinguishable territory of the mother-child dyad and as an endeavor to overcome spatial ambivalence, this analysis focuses on the topography of the pre-symbolic. The study deals primarily with the film’s protagonist, Carol’s abjection, as evidenced by her relation to corporeality and to spatiality. Carol goes through a crisis in life and suffers from an undiagnosed illness. As the film progresses, she goes to a healing facility out in the desert, where she seeks treatment for her disease, here, but gradually regresses to a narcissistic phase. The semi-religious philosophy of this facility leads her to isolate herself from society and negates her integration into the socio-symbolic network. This self-indulgence and self-love finally causes her to be trapped in a narcissistic closure. This article discusses this narcissistic closure through the visual and audio analysis of the film.