Freuds theory

 Sigmund Freud was a well-known psychologist who came up with many theories we still use for analysis today. One of his most well-known theories was his psychoanalytic theory which was the first to discuss the unconscious human mind and the importance it has on human behaviour and it is based on Freud's suggestion that there are three parts to the conscious mind. The first is the unconscious mind which is in constant existence outside your awareness, then the precocious mind which is all information that your brain isn't always aware of but can be recalled and finally the conscious mind which is your current state of awareness. Now, these come into play when Freud talks about his ideologies and theories on personality and how it is constructed.

Freud believes there are three parts to personality. These include the Id, which is the first to develop in humans and the biological part of personality in which we act upon instinct through it while it operates in one unconscious mind. Examples of the Id are desires and selfish wants as it operates according to the pleasure principle which is the idea that all of one's needs should be met immediately hence why Freud believes this develops first because we see this in babies as they don't know right from wrong and what is acceptable and unacceptable so when they need or want something their instinct is to cry and they get it because that's the only way it can communicate.

The second part of personality and the third to develop is the superego. The superego is the opposite of the id and exists in all three levels of consciousness. It maintains the idea of not what you as an individual wants but what is socially acceptable and the right thing to do as it pushes you towards one ego ideal, which is one view of what is right and along with that it also represents your conscious which is ones view of what is wrong.

And the final part of personality and the second to develop is the ego. The ego is the part of the personality that evaluates and balances the id and superego out and makes a decision from them and operates in one conscious and preconscious mind. If there was a person with a devil and an angel on each shoulder, the ego would be the person in the middle of them making the decision and the one left to deal with the consequences of it and operates in the alignment of the reality principle which is the idea that the desires and wants of the id must be met and satisfied through a way that the superego would deem socially acceptable while being realistic. Again we can see why this would be the second to develop because as a child grows, while still not being able to comprehend the superego yet of what is deemed socially acceptable, its mind is growing and can perceive things like emotions from others allowing them to make decisions that aren't just the id. For example, a toddler begins to understand the difference between happiness and sadness in others and as a result, wants to make people around it happy so will begin to communicate through other ways than just crying as it learns that you don't need to do that.

Freud's Psychoanalysis theory on personality can be applied to Mean girls a film about Teenage and high school drama.

Kady, the main character represents the ego, as she is the one making decisions that the film follows that are questionably morally right or wrong. As Kady has never been to school before, she doesn't really have an opinion or bias on what is happening at the start of the film. She ends up sercomming to the id as she is desperate to make friends even though she is tricking Regina and her plastics because her newfound friends convince her it will be funny even though she knows it is morally wrong therefore she justifies it through the fact she has been told Regina isn't a nice person. As the film continues her motives change and she gives in to her id as we see at the Halloween party Regina teased her with the boy she liked so now Kady has a personal motive causing her to want to 'take her down from her school social status. Towards the final act of the film, we see Kady's id become more and more present as her motives become even more selfish when we see her want to become Regina and take her place even though she despised her earlier in the film and knows she isn't a good person.

The Id is sometimes represented by people in the film for example in the first part of the film her friends Dameon and Janis as they want her to do things that Kady knows is wrong but she does it because she wants friends. In the 'Burn Book scene,' we see Kady being shown the burn book, you can tell by her expressions she is very uncomfortable with what the girls have written in the book however kady wants them to accept her. She is shown through a low angle close up looking at the book while non-diegetic intense music builds up to reinforce the fact she as the ego is deciding how to react and at this moment she has the power to call them out but she doesn't. The fact the book is shown through a high angle shows tells the spectator that they look down on everyone and think they are superior to everyone and untouchable. The 

page turns to her friends and she doesn't stick up for them and when they ask who Dameon is she says "he's almost too gay to function" as Janis had said as a joke previously and Regina tells her to write it down because it's funny. Then we hear Kadys superego kick in through the non-diegetic voice-over of her saying "maybe that was only okay when Janis said it"but instead of correcting herself she gives in to the id which is the influence of the girls and wants to fit in with them even though it's not the right thing to do as her superego pointed out. I believe the id is more like that want than the people specifically and the film creates a visual metaphor in Kady's mind which is her seeing the characters adopt animal-like behaviours and often fighting as she is from Africa and her VoiceOver explains how this is what would happen if they were animals through instinct. But as Kady says, in the girl world the fighting has to be sneaky so instead of acting immediately upon her id she has to be smart through her ego and think strategically about how to satisfy her selfish needs.

The superego, like the id, can be seen represented and symbolised through characters like her parents and Mrs Norbury and even her friends at times but overall I would argue the non-diegetic voiceover of Kady is representing the superego. Similarly to how the superego is active on all three conscious mind types, the voiceover is always there whenever kady makes a decision or has to validate something. It is her conscience. And as the superego is the last to develop, we see it take action and come into play in the final act of the film. In the 'girl on girl crime scene,' Miss Norbery is volunteering the girls to own up for their reactions and when picking the next girl, it is obvious to the audience it will be kady as we see a long shot of the girls sat on the benches of the gym and kady sticks out with her bright blue top on and she is positioned centre screen.
When she is asked if she has anything that she wants to own up to we hear her voice-over say yes while she says no. This continues two more times and is shown through a close-up shot on the same level as miss Norbery which conveys that she is being directly confronted with the option to tell the truth, but she doesn't as the voice-over explains she can't apologise to her teacher without getting the blame for the burn book even though she knows it is the right thing to do so what her ego does is respond with no and ignores her superego. When she finally takes responsibility for her actions things she would have previously said through VoiceOver now becomes what she says in person. Specifically in her Prom Queen speech.