Iron Man on the Analytic Couch
This piece is based on a talk I gave at the Steambot Explore Workshops in New Orleans this past weekend (May 22-26, 2013).
Many people feel like Tony Stark. True, we aren’t all genius inheritors of billion dollar arms manufacturing companies, but I believe that on a deeper level Tony’s issues resonate broadly and are a key reason for the film’s mass appeal.
From the opening scene of the 2008 film Iron Man we get a pretty clear picture of who Tony Stark is and what his character flaws are. He’s riding in a Humvee with the military. They’re serious and dressed in camo while Tony’s wearing an expensive suit and shades, and kicking back some scotch. He teases the military to loosen them up and one guy gets the nerve to ask Tony if it’s true about him and a playmate.
Right away, we know Tony’s wealthy, stylish, the kind of guy who says and does what he wants, and of course, a playboy. As the opening scenes progress we also learn that he drinks a lot, uses and discards women, is spoiled, and has his assistant, Pepper, deal with his responsibilities. It also appears that he uses Pepper to feel cared for, without reciprocating emotionally - instead he does it financially. When he finds out it’s her birthday he tells her he hopes she got herself something nice with his money.
We learn he’s irresponsible (not showing up to receive his award), and unaccountable (leaving others to explain his absence). He arrives three hours late for his plane, disrespecting Rhodey who has to wait for him. When Rhodey tries to talk business during the flight, Tony dismisses him in favor of drinking and turning the plane into a nightclub.
When they arrive to their destination and Tony pitches the Jericho weapon, he lays out his business attitude: “I prefer a weapon you only have to fire once. That’s how dad did it and that’s how America does it. One hit and the bad guys will be afraid to come out of their caves.”
Yeah, right Tony, unless the bad guys use your weapons on you, which is of course what happens next. A rebel group with a huge supply of Stark industry weapons famously takes Tony hostage and orders him to build a weapon for them. This situation is a real eye-opener that forces Tony to make a decision. The result? Tony builds the Iron Man suit.
While an act of self-protection, survival, and a rejection of the terrorists and their efforts to coerce him, ultimately, I believe, this move is Tony’s first move toward accountability.
Rather than his usual behavior of sending out weapons to anonymous customers, Tony goes with his weapon. He merges himself with the weapon he creates and is therefore responsible for the damage it causes.
Once Tony gets home he makes another major decision. He refuses to sell any more weapons and gets to work further developing the Iron Man suit. In other words, he goes deeper into linking himself with his actions. He’s still not accountable because he does it in secret, but he’s moving toward greater responsibility.
The evil father figure, Obadiah Stane, Tony’s dad’s former business partner and friend, is naturally pissed by this turn of events. Stane wants to keep the old system of zero accountability and selfish profit going. He insists Tony take time off and let him handle it. In essence he urges him to stay in the dark or stay a child. When Tony refuses to regress, Stane tries to destroy him.
Tony feels shored up by Pepper’s love and tells her how he feels. When he asks her to replace his generator he admits to her, “I don’t have anyone else.” In other words, there is no one else he entrusts to protect his heart. Her support, joined with his insights, lead him to confront the evil paternal figure, Stane, and engage in the final battle.
It is only after success on all these fronts that Tony can say to the world, “I am Iron Man.” I am the weapon I make, and where it goes, and what it does, I am responsible for. Hold me accountable.[1]
Okay, so how is this fantastic story in any way representative of the struggle of the everyday person? The answer lies in Tony’s internal, psychological struggles.
We get some insight into the nature of his struggles by looking at his excessive alcohol use and reliance. It’s well known among psychoanalysts that “the bottle” often emotionally stands in for “the nursing breast,” or the nurturing presence of a parent who feeds the baby with attention and love. Tony’s drinking is therefore a clue that his issues stem from a very early developmental wound. This leads me to suspect that his Iron suit protects a vulnerable core.
Tony Stark appears to have a powerful need for love and nurturance, which he constantly rejects using narcissistic defenses (such as grandiosity, selfishness, exploiting women, etc.)
Narcissism is an unconscious defensive personality system that is designed to help an individual deny their needs for others and any sense of emotional vulnerability because it feels too risky to be in touch with these feelings.
Tony’s chest plate generator is designed to keep pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his chest from piercing his heart and killing him. We can understand the shrapnel dangerously close to his heart as a symbolic representation of this constant sense of emotional vulnerability and threat: he feels as though his heart is in constant danger of being shot to pieces.
I do believe that Tony is not the only one out there who feels like this. The question I’m still curious about is whether or not the following Iron Man films are successful in showing how to further evolve out of this condition. Does Tony achieve a feeling of safety and love without that constant sense of being under life threatening attack? And is his journey one that others can learn from?
Of course, the pleasure of the public attention for his heroism as iron man helps him to utter these words, but it’s a huge developmental step for him nonetheless.