A Freudian Psycho Analysis Interpretation of Dark Horse

In Richard Appignanesi, Oscar Zarete, and Tom Engelhardt (1990) Freud for Beginners, the authors discuss Freud and his ideas through the use of a cartoon. The authors Appignanesi, Zarete, and Engelhardt cover a variety of Freudian ideas from how Freud interprets his dream to the importance of dream analysis while also discussing the mind.

Bird from reading

Bird from music video

The music video that I chose for this assignment was Dark House by Katy Perry. One of the reasons that I chose this music video was because it had mythical creatures in it like those that you could quite possibly see in a dream.  In addition to this point the birds that appear in this music video are identical to the ones that show up in the cartoons. According to the reading Freud had a dream about these birds carrying his mother into his room. Freud interprets this to be that of a typical childhood wish. That being to kill the father and have sex with the mother.



In addition to the music video having the same birds as the reading, another freudian thing in this music video is that it appears to be very dreamlike throughout the entire music video. The creatures which appear in the music video appear to be half human and half animal. This adds to the idea of it being a dream as this creatures simply do not exist in the real world. One could interpret this as being that Katy Perry has sexual fantasies with mythical creatures as that is what she is dreaming about.

The song lyrics themselves when put to a freudian reading indicate that one Katy Perry feels as though by singing she frees herself. Mark my words. This love will make you levitate. Like a bird
Like a bird without a cage. This line of lyrics indicated to me that through the use of song that Katy Perry feels free.


Overall, I found the reading to be very informative as the information was presented in a manner in which the reader could clearly understand what the writer intended for the reader to get out of the writing. The comics are very clear and clearly convey the message to the reader.