“Each individual is unique and each individual is many individuals he does not know.”
Octavio Paz
Written by: Stevens Rouzo (Master 2 student in clinical psychology)
I. Introduction:
In the context of this article, I propose first of all to acquaint you with the different main characters composing the series “Breaking Bad” (appendix 1 and 2). My objective is to present in an interactive way, my analysis (with the help of psychoanalytical theory) of the main character: Walter White. To do so, you have at your disposal a download link, in which you will have access to photos of the scenes and dialogues taken for this analysis. There would have been a lot to say about this hero that we have been following for five seasons. Thus, I started from the analysis of 3 major scenes of the series, trying to make links with some previous and later episodes. My representation of this character being obviously restricted by the imposed framework, I propose you a vision that made sense to me, the appendices also having for objective to awaken your reflection for this complex hero. In order to obtain a better understanding of the analysis, pauses are recommended, even necessary, to get acquainted with the scenes and dialogues presented. In this framework, an indication “(appendix)” is given to you during the reading. This presentation will attempt a process analysis, in order to understand what seems to compose certain dynamics of our character, then we will make certain clinical hypotheses about his psychic dynamics. Let us therefore let us carry and investigate together the universe of Breaking Bad.
Link to download the appendices (French subtitles) : https://uncloud.univ-nantes.fr/index.php/s/pXZXkJcFcLxzNKs
Disclaimer : This analysis contains SPOILERS of a large part of the plot of the series, and of the evolution of its main character.
A knowledge of analytical theory may be necessary at certain times, although I have tried to make its understanding as clear as possible.
II. Who’s Walter White ?
We will introduce our character with a dialogue from episode 3 of season 2 (appendix 3), when he explains to a psychiatrist the reasons for his runaway, which he passes off as a bout of dementia: “Dr. Chavez : Why run away? What did you want to escape from? Walter White: Doctor, my wife is seven months pregnant with an unplanned baby. My 15-year-old son has encephalopathy. I’m an overqualified chemistry teacher who teaches at a high school! When I can work I earn $43700 a year. I have seen all my colleagues and friends do better than me in every field, in every way imaginable, and within 18 months I will be dead. And you ask, why am I running away?”. Erased and narcissistically hurt by those who have surpassed him all his life, Walter yearns for something else. Walter White wants to escape his condition and free himself from certain constraints. The dialogue in episode 5 of season 1, with his entire family, is a perfect example of this (Appendix 4): “Sometimes I think I never really made my own choices, you see. All my life…it seems like I never really had a say” he tells his wife, who would like him to go through chemotherapy when he is diagnosed with lung cancer. These are the same lungs that keep Walter connected to life, and are tainted by the disease. Don’t we have here a wonderful symbolic illustration of his illness? Walter is suffocating, no longer finding the new air to breathe into his own story. An overqualified professor, Walter White is above all a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, rewarded for his research on radiography. However, this prize has never been invested at its true value, serving only as a trophy on a wall of the house. Worse, his research was used by Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz, with whom he co-founded the $2.16 billion company “Gray Matter Technologies” when he was a student. The Nobel Prize is the symbol of the immense narcissistic wound of Walter White, the one which illustrates marvelously the turn taken by our hero who will invest the dreaded and dreadful world of the drug under the identity of Heisenberg. In an exchange with Jesse (Appendix 5) Walter announces that he “checks the company’s stock exchange listing every week” and that he has embarked on drug production, not for money, but “to dominate”. Indeed, our hero doesn’t spend the money he earns, he hoards it. He has a bond of opulence to money, seeming to have the virtue of narcissistic reparation. A point of phallic regression, this object seems to be a way of showing others: “Look at what I am capable of too!” (appendix 6). The narcissistic wound presented wakes up when Walter (now known as the Heisenberg), ready to denounce himself, overhears by chance an interview with his two former associates claiming that his role, in the development of the firm, has been reduced to the creation of the name (appendix 7). In fact, the announcement of the cancer will paradoxically be like a second wind. The latter will be diminished as he will borrow the desires he had forbidden himself until then, by investing the drug world with his talents as a chemist (appendix 8).
To try to understand this shift, Heinz Kohut’s concept of “self-psychology” seems relevant. For him, the Self is considered to be the central element of the psyche in subjects with narcissistic disorders. The Self differs from the Ego, since it brings together narcissism as well as personality. Here, “psychic suffering is no longer the result of a conflict within the psyche, but of a failure in the environment that inflicts a narcissistic wound” (Denis, 2013). Contrary to the Freudian modality where the mind is governed by the triad of conflict-pleasure-guilt, Kohut’s modality is governed by the failure of the environment-joy-tragic (Denis, 2013). Here, the failure of the environment is illustrated by Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz, or by Hank, who will steal the spotlight on his birthday (Appendix 9). Here we see the pivotal situations that explain how this father, with no history, will make the decision to face the law. He will then decide, under the guise of altruism (“I do it for my family”), to become a producer of methamphetamine without ever using it, which will gradually give substance to his fantasy of omnipotence. It will mark the rejection of the anguish of castration and death manifested by Walter at the announcement of his cancer (not having been able to invest his talents professionally, not providing for his family as he would like). Thus, as Edgar Morin (2001, p.41) points out, “the certainty of death linked to the uncertainty of one’s time is a source of anguish for life”. Over the course of the episodes, the confrontation with supposed death will lead our hero to the elaboration of an Ideal Self, in order to free himself from the castration of a formerly surmoic Superego. We will see later in this analysis, that Walter will invest this ideal in a fantastical register, marking his entry into narcissistic pathology, where the Ego will become grandiose and without limits. Finally, cancer will be a dream opportunity for Walter to explore feelings he had previously denied himself: the desire and power to act.
Thus, the dialogue presented previously (episode 5, season 1 – appendix 4) tells us a lot about Walter’s future evolution, both by its title (“Vivre ou Survivre” in French) and by the last sequence where Walter goes to meet Jesse to ask him if he wants to cook (make methamphetamine), marking his entry into this previously disinvested universe. This last scene confronts the desire to provide for his family and to exist, with a fantasy that we will gradually perceive as spectators: that of becoming powerful, of being the center of attention, of being superior to the people he was in the shadows of, of being the one who dictates the laws. However, what processes seem to allow Walter to be this object he aspires to be?
a. Obsessive Process:
This feature of Walter’s psychic dynamics is revealed in episode 10 of season 3. In this episode, Walter and Jesse decide to pressurize the (drug) lab, due to the presence of a fly, which Walter believes can contaminate the finished product. In a context where Walter no longer sleeps, worried by the turning point in his life that he is gradually taking, he seems to lose control, tyrannized by the conflicts that have arisen from his responsibility in the death of Jane, then Jesse’s girlfriend. During episode 12 of season 2, Walter observes her choking in her vomit during an overdose; while he can help her; faced with the anguish of castration that she represents (appendix 10). Jane is this bad object that can interfere with her desires for control from her investment in the drug world, and her investment in the relationship with Jesse. We will see it as an isolating mechanism, where Walter will cut himself off entirely from the emotional burden of representing the act committed (Appendix 10). We can therefore assume that these obsessive elements occur in a context where the depressive collapse seeks to be pushed out. The isolation seems to shift here to Walter’s representation of the presence of the fly in the lab, provoking an obsession with order and cleanliness that seems irrational. We think here of retroactive annulment, where Walter tries to annul in the mode of omnipotence, the affect associated with the act committed on Jane. However, during the episode “The Fly” (episode 10-season 3), Walter hits his head against a pipe, breaks a light, and falls heavily in his pursuit of the present fly, symbolically marking a turn (appendix 11). Walt loses control of the different spaces (boundaries between the outside and the inside), of the connections that make up the objects of his internal and external world, between what conflicts internally and what he controls from the environment. Walter blames himself for Jane’s death, which inevitably confronts him with his choices. Fear gains ground, and remorse is far more present than he lets on. When the fly lands on his forehead, he asks Jesse to hit him so he can kill her. Isn’t this an opportunity that Walter gives Jesse to punish him for his actions? (Appendix 12). Caught in the trap of blind self-confidence, in order to keep a sense of control, his Ego tries to find a compromise between the two instances (Superego-Id) that are pulling him down. In a complementary way, the etiology noted also leads us to suppose that his behavior illustrates sadistic-anal impulses, seeming to mask repressed sadistic (destructive) tendencies, linked to people who have belittled and surpassed Walter all his life (what did Jane fantastically represent?). In this sense, Walter would attempt to “repress the hostile motion by reinforcing the libidinal motion in the form of reactionary formation” (Grebot, 2002, p.99).
The masterful end of the episode keeps us on tenterhooks: Walter ready to confess to Jane’s death (“Jesse, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Jane. I’m really sorry…”), agrees to lose control by falling into a second state, caused by the sleeping pill Jesse puts in a glass of water (“Jesse goes back down. We have to cook. (…) Everything is contaminated”). This episode marks a slowing down in the frantic rhythm of the series, a turning point as subtle as it is necessary. It reminds us that Walter is just a man like you and me, having to face his fears and his actions. A line from Jesse reinforces Walter’s remorse: “We are who we are, Mr. White“. The last scene of the episode reinforces our hypothesis: while he is sleeping, Walter is awakened by the sound of a fly landing on the fire alarm box in his room (Appendix 13). This moment, as insignificant as it may seem, makes him understand that he will not escape his own monstrosity. The expression on Walter’s face confirms it: there is no turning back (photo 6, appendix 13). To understand the ingenuity of this scene is to understand the intensely tragic outcome in which Walter is heading. In conclusion, this episode seems to be the most eloquent of the whole series.
B. Megalomaniacal Process:
Another psychic process that we note in Walter is megalomaniacal functioning, during episode 7 of season 5 (appendix 14). The latter depicts a proud and self-assured character. Walter takes on the costume and manners of the character he believes himself to be, identifying with the role he believes he is called upon to play, and the ideas of grandeur associated with megalomania stifle ideas of persecution (Brémaud, 2017). This corollary is found in Walter White, who feels frustrated of this life next door, the life he did not have, the one he would have deserved. This scene, through Walter’s speech, sends us back to the manic delirium via the fantasy of overestimation (“You all know who I am”, “Say my name”), the megalomaniacal transformation and the almighty object that Walter thinks he is (“I am the one and only”), marking a triumph, a completion (“I am the one who killed Gus Fring”). There is a hypertrophy of the Ego (Minkowski, 1966) in which the world of fiction is embodied. According to Brémaud (2017), quoting Soler (1990), megalomaniacal delirium has its origins in a flawed narcissism. This faulty narcissism is identified in our hero. What seems to lead him to develop these features, is the non-recognition of his work, his genius and his implication in the company “Gray Matter Technologies”, in which people became rich, without him saying anything during years. These years spent to be a self in defect, a “zero-self” referring to his talents of chemists not invested in their entirety: his same talents which will lead him to forge an identity and a dummy Ego, on a background of existential vacuity (Brémaud, 2017) having followed him until his 50 years. By embodying the role of the persecutor, via this exceptional identity borrowed-from Gus Fring, Walter now seeks to avoid the castration of being removed from his place of omnipotence. From his place as a subject frustrated by a failing environment, by being the “rejected” of others, Walter tries to move from the “zero object” to the “supreme object”, fantastically annihilating his past. Convinced that he is the greatest, “the man who killed Gus Fring”, Walter exalts being able to enjoy the esteem of the other unconditionally. By accepting his proposal (“Say my name”), Declan brings him what he is running towards: the recognition of the other and in the other. Through Declan, assimilated to the world of drugs, his ideas of greatness are embodied. In this surmoic position, from the man who has succeeded in defeating the hydra Gus Fring, will see the birth of this remarkable scene where our character announces to his wife Skyler that he has “won” (season 4, episode 13 – appendix 15). Is all this finally only an I (Game) for this man that nothing predisposed to become this new drug baron? A way of affirming and showing the world that he is this man that everyone must now fear? Nothing can then fantastically stop Walter White, alias Heisenberg; who’s “the virile object” (Lacan, 1981, cited by Brémaud, 2017), an illustration of the omnipotence of the father; plays the law on several occasions. In episode 5 of season 4 (Appendix 16), he will announce that the drug producer that Hank (a DEA agent) thinks he has killed (Gale Boetticher, with whom Walter has already worked) is still in the wild: “Your genius… is probably still out there”. Blinded by his pride and arrogance, Walter will refuse to be robbed of the spotlight again. He plays the authority figure embodied by Hank, the castrating figure par excellence. This same figure he will confront, when Hank understands who the real Heisenberg is (ep.9, season 5): “If you don’t know who you’re talking to (…) you’d better be careful” (appendix 17). These scenes, together with episode 3 of season 5 where Walter sees money going out in fees paid by Mike, reflect his inability to accept castration from now on (limits, prohibitions, norms) (appendix 18).
This process marks a fundamental weakness in Walter: fighting depression by giving him the feeling that he has complete and total control over the world. This flight from the depressive position (through megalomaniacal positioning) can be linked to the processes of incorporation into the Ego noted in episodes 2 of season 1, 4 and 8 of season 5 (Appendix 19). In the first example, Walter commits his first murder on Krazy-8 (who wanted to attack him with a piece of broken plate). During his captivity, Walter brings him sandwiches to eat, haunting him with the idea of doing the deed and letting him go (he convinces himself that he would kill his family). Since Krazy-8 does not like scabs, in Episode 1 of Season 3, Walter will have the same habit (Appendix 19.1). The second process of incorporation is when Walter uses a towel in the same manner as Gus Fring to vomit, or when he takes on almost all the aspects when he becomes the manager of a car wash (appendix 19.2). Finally, the third incorporation process noted relates to Mike, where Walter will get into the habit of drinking his whisky on ice, a habit that Mike had before he was killed by the latter (Appendix 19.3). Freud (1917) supposes that this process reveals an impossible mourning of the object. Thus, “the shadow of the object falls on the self” and Walter develops certain behaviors or personality traits of the person he killed, since “the ambivalent affects and processes (life and death impulses) towards the deceased (the shadow) will be turned against the self” (Rabeyron, 2018).
This is the end of this part. Go to part two for the end of my analysis, clinical hypotheses and conclusion.