Face Your Fear

Abstract

Based on the novel of the same name by author Stephen King and directed by Andy Muschietti, IT: Chapter One (2017) and IT: Chapter Two (2019) tell the story of seven children who are relentlessly pursued by an evil clown. According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, an individual's fears in adulthood have a relationship with developmental situations that coincide with childhood. These fears contribute to the survival of the individual and also make it possible for the individual to adapt to social and/or environmental stimuli. Freud explained the development of personality and the stages in this development with the concepts of id, ego and superego, and stated that the state of fear, which finds meaning as the ego's way of escaping from danger, can develop differently due to id or superego. The aim of this study is to analyze the fear behaviors of the main characters in the both films within the framework of id, ego and superego through psychoanalytic film criticism.