“Stan” by Eminem is no doubt on of the famous music videos of the 21st century. The song and video are told from the point of view of obsessed Eminem fan “Stan”. In the video we are introduced to Stan who has a pregnant girlfriend (played by singer Dodo who makes an appearance in the song). The story details how Eminem-obsessed Stan writes letters to his idol - but due to Eminem repeatedly not replying to the letters, Stan sends more angry letters - the story comes to close when Stan drives his car with his pregnant girlfriend in the boot into the lake, whilst sending an angry voice recording to Eminem due to not responding to his mail - Eminem doesn’t get this angry voice recording though as before driving the car into the lake, Stan humorously realises - “Well, gotta go, I'm almost at the bridge now. Oh shit, I forgot, how am I supposed to send this shit out?”
Obsessed fan Stan writing to his idol
We then cut to the real life Eminem, who upon reading one of Stan’s angry letters, Eminem respectfully explains how “I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy”. During this scene, it cuts to a shot of the post office in which one of Stan’s letters falls out of the post - referencing Stans early line “there must have been a mix up at the post office or somethin’”. Whilst Eminem is respectful to Stan in this letter, he also expresses concern about his mental health - “You got some issues Stan, I think you need some counseling to help your ass from bouncing off the walls when you get down some.” In further expressing his concern he recalls “this one shit on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick. Some dude was drunk and drove his car over a bridge and had his girlfriend in the trunk, and she was pregnant with his kid. And in the car they found a tape, but they didn't say who it was to. Come to think about, his name was, it was you” Upon realising that the perpetrator was Stan, Eminem lets out a “Damn!”, and the songs ends, with and sudden burst of lightning near Eminem's rainy window, in which the face of Stan appears in the window for no more than a second.
(Stan briefly appearing in Eminem’s window)
The story for “Stan” sure is entertaining with interesting characters and unique premise - by following the letters Stan sends, we are intrigued throughout and want to know how the story ends. By making Stan a “family man” with a pregnant girlfriend, it makes him relatable to the average viewer, and thus his downfall is all the more tragic. The duality of Stan’s life is communicated visually with Stan's girlfriend (his “normal” life) placed at the top of the house. A shot pans down to the layers of the house and reveals Stan’s basement which is a dark and gloomy shrine dedicated to Eminem, with poster’s everywhere, and where he writes his disturbed fan mail. This is reminiscent to the house in Alfred Hitchcock’s film PSYCHO, in which deranged character Norman Bate’s house has three layers (basement, middle and top). This is reference to influential psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his idea that there are three stages of human consciousness “Id, ego and Super ego”. The “Super ego” is what one would call one’s “good self”, the self one presents to the world to appear morally pure and agreeable with society.
“The iceberg model often used to describe Freud’s theory of consciousness”
Freud associates the “Super ego”, with parental figures and the responsibility they take on to raise their children on ethical morals and thus they they alter themselves to appear to be the “Super ego” role model in hopes to better influence their children, saying - “the super-ego also takes on the influence of those who have stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models”. We see this in “Stan”, in which the symbol of parental maturity is present in the form of Stan’s concerned pregnant girlfriend at the top of the house. We also see this in PSYCHO, as in the top of the house, we see Norman’s “mother’s” bedroom as well as Norman’s childhood bedroom, complete with teddy bears and a child-sized bed. These are all featured at the top of the house and represent the “Super ego”.
Norman and “mothers” room – symbol of parental authority at the top of the house (super ego)
Stan’s pregnant girlfriend at the top of the house (super ego) another symbol of parental authority
Also, when describing the motives of the super ego, Freud mentions “the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured”. The character of Stan indulges in “narcissistic satisfaction” during the beginning scene, in which in the upstairs bathroom (super ego) he is seen bleaching his hair blonde to look like his hero Eminem - he is altering himself to fulfill his super ego. As I mentioned how the super-ego is often associated with going along with the ebb and flow of society, could the reason why Stan is altering himself is due to the fact that Eminem is a pop culture idol? Does he think be altering himself, he will gain more approval from society, thus satisfying his super-ego?
However another stage of human conscience - the bottom - is what Freud described as the “Id”. Id represents our natural instincts,that often go against the norms of civilised society (the super ego) and often represent our primal sexual and aggressive traits. The “Id” is present with us straight at birth as a natural setting, whereas the “super-ego” is taught to us by the morals set by parental figures and society. In the basement of Stan’s house lies his “Id” - his aggressive and primal nature that he hides from the world, and similarly in PSYCHO, the fruit cellar shows Normans perverse and sexually suggestive nature, in that we see the corpse of his murdered mother, that he hides from the world.
The bottom of the house, in the fruit cellar (Id) where Norman hides his darker side of himself – his mother’s murdered corpse
Stan’s basement (Id) in which his unhealthy obsession for Eminem is present
The association of the “Id” being associated with children/babies (“present at birth” as Freud would say), is communicated visually. In Psycho, as I mentioned before, there is emphasis on Norman’s bedroom, in which the bed appears to be recently slept in, and in another scene, Norman is scene eating “candy” - food often associated with babies and children. In Stan, we see our main character whine to both his girlfriend and Eminem, the way we would expect a spoiled child to do. In the beginning scene, before the music starts, Stan locks himself in the bathroom, with his girlfriend pleading him to come out - the way we would expect a mother to reason with a grumpy child from locking themselves in a bathroom as part of a temper-tantrum. The idea of Stan being a symbolic child/baby is also communicated in the shot where his pregnant girlfriend sits on the toilet. The shot pans downs from her sitting on the toilet to Stan at the bottom in his basement. Now this may be crude, but the downward shot from the woman on the toilet to Stan at the bottom, could be interpreted as a birth metaphor - as if Stan has dropped out from his girlfriend’s vagina from the top of the house to the basement at the bottom - the newborn child in which the “Id” is present.
The pan shot in which it shows the layers of the house (human consciousness) and possible birth metaphor
Freudian ideas aren’t the only psychoanalytical themes present in “Stan”. The ideas of Carl Jung and his idea of “the shadow” are present in “Stan” as well as Hitchcock’s PSYCHO. Jung was influenced by Freud, although the two disagreed on many things.
When discussing the shadow, Jung says - “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.” In black and white terms, the shadow is the dark side of us - the “Id”. He also says - “The ego confuses itself with the façade personality (which is of course in reality only that part of the personality that is tailored to fit the collective), and forgets that it possesses aspects which run counter to the persona his means that the ego has repressed the shadow side and lost touch with the dark contents, which are negative”
Psychoanalyst Carl Jung pictured
In PSYCHO, themes of the shadow are present and are communicated visually - the scene where Norman makes Marion “sandwiches and milk”, Norman on the surface appears to be a beta-male “nice guy”, in his interest to help Marion, but behind this polite facade, lies his primal sexual interest in Marion. For example the room is adorned with Norman’s “stuffed birds” (a harmless yet somewhat creepy ornament), but the shadows of the birds point at Marion imposingly - the beak shadows are quite phallic. In fact the beak shadows are similar to the phallic knife that the shadowy figure of “mother” uses when she (he) stabs Marion. Mother of course being Norman’s repressed shadow.
Note the similarities between the shadow beak and the shadowy knife held by mother (credit due to Rob Ager for pointing out this similarity - check out his film analysis for pyscho on his website Collative Learning)
Jung also says “Closer examination of the dark characteristics – that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow – reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality.” When talking of the “obsessive” and “possessive” aspects of the shadow, this is relatable to both the characters of Stan and Norman. Stan of coursed being obsessed with Eminem and Norman being obsessed with his mother.
Despite the shadow being associated with negative traits, one can also link Jungian psychology with creativity. For example, underrated philosopher Walter Kaufmann (best known for being the translator of many works by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche) said - "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity”. This is true of Eminem, as his creativity is often inspired by dark aspects of humanity which are often suppressed by many, with “Stan” being no exception. Interestingly, the brief shot of Stan appearing in Eminem’s window as a reflection of sorts - could be suggestive of Eminem’s shadow. Like Kaufmann would say, “the shadow is the seat of creativity” with Eminem being inspired by a dark subject matter to write this very song. Also the “shadow” of Stan could be a symbol of Eminem’s repressed guilt for partly being the cause of the murder/suicide of Stan and his pregnant wife.
(Eminem’s shadow)
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