PRESENTED BY:

PSYCHOANALYSIS OF JOE MAHRUKH SHAHID, (05-171201-166)

MANAHIL SYED, (05-171201-

GOLDBERG'S CHARACTER 183)

MAHDEED MANAN (05-171201-181)
MISHAL BAVA. (05-171201-162)
SERIES:YOU CLASS: IPP BS 1-E.
INTRODUCTION
The character of our presentation is Joe
Goldberg from the Netflix
psychological thriller series YOU based
on the novel series by Caroline Kepnes.
The series revolve around a man name
Joe who is a psychopath and has severe
behavioral issues. In the start he was
shown as a keen observer but later on
proved to be a stalker.
Throughout the season, Joe kills, manipulates, and stalks to get
closer to the main female lead-Beck. He is very possessive about
her, and murders people who get closer to her, showing the intensity
of his feelings for her. The episodes also show Joe's relationship
with a girl named Candace- his ex, who routinely torments him with
flashbacks. The series can be concluded by acknowledging a range
of factors, creating a stereotypical portrayal of a bored, delusional,
late 20s man with no actual relationships and a lonely and traumatic
past. Now, we begin with the actual character assassination of Joe
Goldberg, with the theories of Sigmund Freud.
JOE’S CHARACTER ACCORDING TO FREUD'S THEORY OF
PERSONALITY
As far as we know, Freud explained 3 components of personality:
1. ID
2. Ego
3. Super ego
Out of these three, one has to be the dominant trait.
After studying Joe's character, we came to the analysis that he had a
personality which was 'Id' dominant. Id basically works on the pleasure
principle. Id forces a person to do anything and everything just for his
gratification.
 There are a lot of reasons for this. The first and foremost
being his list of murders. He murdered some people for his
pleasure, while others were just for his survival. Joe
demanded instant satisfaction and there was no reasoning
or morality for whatever he did. He did not care about the
social norms. He never planned on killing anyone in the
first place, he usually acts on impulse and triggers.
Here are the list of murders he
did:
1. Peach: Becks friend, who
he killed because she treated
Beck poorly. This shows that
he loved Beck and would go at
any cost to protect her even if it
was not socially or morally
acceptable.
2. Benji: He was Beck's boyfriend who
manipulated and cheated on her. Joe
first kidnapped and tortured Benji for
the sake of his own satisfaction. Joe
gave him a coffee laced with peanut oil,
and Benji in turn died from an allergic
reaction. Joe left Benji's decomposed
body in the basement of a book store
for 3 days. This incident, clearly
depicts that 'Id' ruled over him. He felt
no shame, no sense of morality while
leaving his body in the basement. It
was all for his pleasure and
possessiveness for Beck.
3.Beck:Joe Goldberg seemingly killed his
aspiring writer girlfriend, Guinevere Beck,
after she discovers his obsession with her
and tries to escape his bookstore basement
dungeon. Joe chokes Beck to death on the
bookstore floor after she fails to escape. She
fights back, but he overpowers her and
ultimately kills her. Joe frames Beck's
therapist and lover Dr. Nicky for her
murder. This incident shows the pleasure
principle, because Joe could have negotiated
with Beck, and maybe convinced her for
keeping his secrets, but he forcibly
murdered her, and got his satisfaction. He
found contentment in killing people, just to
maintain his good guy reputation.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood

stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the Id become focused
on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous zone is characterized as an
area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation.
Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes
place during five psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital. These are called psychosexual stages because
each stage represents the fixation of libido (inner sexual energy) on a
different area of the body.
1. ORAL STAGE
This stage starts from birth to 1 year. The 'libido' is focused
towards the mouth area, and the mouth is the erogenous zone.
Fixations occur when the needs of mouth area are not fulfilled.
This includes smoking, nail biting, over eating etc.
After analyzing Joe, there were no symptoms of oral fixation
found in him.
2. ANAL STAGE
This stage begins from 1 year and lasts up to 3 years. Freud explained the toilet training
mechanism in this stage, saying that there are 2 types of personalities depicted:

Anal expulsive: having leniency in toilet training, as a result of which they have a messy
personality, they are irresponsible with feelings and things.

Anal retentive: having a strict training. With the result that, they have rigid personalities
and are good with keeping secrets. Don't let anyone in too easily. Very private with their
lives
Joe's analysis shows that he was an anal retentive personality. He was very secretive, he
never wanted anyone to know about his murders and illegal works. He also liked being
alone and wanted to stay by himself. His life was extremely private and didn't involve
any kind of trust with anyone.
3.PHALLIC STAGE
This stage starts from 3 years and ends at 6. The erogenous zone in this
stage is basically the 'genitals'. Freud explained a complex which young
boys go through called as the Oedipus Complex. This indicates that
boys have sexual feelings for their mothers.
To overcome those, or to get closer to their mothers, they try to idealize
their fathers in an attempt to become their mothers favourite. This is
mostly seen in young boys, who try to imitate their father in everything
they do. They want to become exactly like their father to make their
mother adore them like she appreciates and loves their father.
A 'castration anxiety' starts developing. The boy becomes
extremely possessive of his mother, and starts to hate the father.
He wants his mother for himself and does not want the father to
get closer to her. Jealousy develops for the father. He copies the
masculine behaviour of his father. If at this age, the kid does not
get closure with his father, he develops a fixation which shows
abnormal behaviour.
Kids start to search for the same qualities in their life partners,
which are there in their mothers. Even if the qualities are toxic or
bad, he still wants his future wife, to be like his mother.
This behaviour was highly dominant in Joe. He was also very possessive of his mother, and his
father was a very abusive man. So, according to Freud, he started copying his father which
resulted in Joe being an abuser too. He had a phallic fixation and he started abusing and killing
other people when he grew up. His father's personality affected him very much and that is evident
from all his acts.
All the girls, he had relationships with were a reflection of his mothers personality. His mother
had a Unconfined character. She frequently cheated on his father and Joe had seen all this. Hence,
he liked Beck, because Beck also had a similar character, she could not stand up for herself.
Both the women- his mother and Beck allowed people to use themselves and suffered a lot
because of this. They let others take benefit of themselves.
Joe became so jealous of his father, that he eventually ended up killing him. In his conscious
state, he wanted to save his mother and himself from the torments of his father, but
unconsciously, according to Freud he did this because of this castration anxiety and jealousy of
his father. This was the highest point of his fixation.
4.LATENCY STAGE
This is from 6 years to puberty. In this stage, sexual needs and desires are dormant.
The libido and erogenous zones are non existent. This stage signifies interactions with
the same sex, to explore the personality. Joe, did not have any close friends, The only
person he was close to, was Mr. Mooney, a book store, owner with whom his mother
left Joe after his fathers death. Mr. Mooney had a strong impact on shaping Joes
character. Joe adopted the habit of locking people in a glass cage, from him. he
considered books as his friends, which resulted in him being anti social and secretive.
This was his personality. Child usually has few opposite sex friends. This stage is
important in development of social and communication skill and self confidence. A
sign of fixation in this stage is a lack of close friends.
 
5.GENITAL STAGE
During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops
a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. This stage lasts from puberty till
adulthood. The erogenous zone consists of the genital organs. Full sexual
maturity is reached here. There is no fixation in this stage. Mature, healthy,
and socially acceptable sexual behaviours are incorporated here. abnormality
in this stage shows that the earlier stages were not completed successfully.
Joe like usual people, had a normal behavior in this stage. He was involved
in sexual behaviours with Beck. He maintained healthy and fulfilling
relationships with the opposite sex, as proposed by Freud.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS:
Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to
protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.
Defense mechanisms act in a positive way, and make the individual feel better at
an unconscious level.
We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt,
which arise because we feel threatened, or because our id or superego becomes too
demanding.
The types of defense mechanisms are:
1. repression
2. regression
3. displacement
4. sublimation
5.reaction formation
6. projection
7. rationalization
8. denial
Joe’s character showed some major defense mechanisms :
PROJECTION

Projection is a defense mechanism in which someone doesn't accept their feelings,

and tries to project them on someone else.
Joe showed this attribute by blaming Dr. Nikki for his and Beck’s broken
relationship. He criticized Dr.Niki for coming in between him and Beck instead of
accepting the fact that it was Becks fault. Beck herself went to Dr.Nikki for
therapy, knowing that he wasn’t a good man.
Joe showed his frustration by sending Dr.Nikki to jail, and framing him for Beck’s
murder.
RATIONALIZATION
It is characterized by creating false excuses for your unacceptable
feelings and behaviors. Trying to justify wrong behaviors, by
rationalizing. 
Joe tried to justify his murders by saying that he was obsessed with
Beck and that he loved her. He argued that he could not see anyone
hurting Beck, but in reality he did it all for his satisfaction. He made
excuses on Beck’s behalf to hide his socially unacceptable behavior.
DENIAL
Denial means not accepting traumas and harsh events. If a situation is just too
much to handle, the person may respond by refusing to perceive it or by denying
that it exist. The person refuses to experience the trauma and wants to contradict it.
Joe showed extreme denial when he killed all the main characters of the play.
When Beck confronted him and called him out for his wrong behavior, he did not
accept this and went into a denial stage. He could not believe that he was wrong,
and he also killed Beck in this state of refusal. This shows the height of his defense
mechanism.
CONCLUSION:
Joe’s character shows us that he was a manipulator, he acted on impulses on triggers. Mostly, he
wanted to find real love, the love he never received. Yet even though he wanted to be loved, he
understood he had to love the other person completely and truly in order to get that love back.
Many people only expect love but sometimes never truly take the time to give love, and I think
that’s what makes Joe’s character likeable. He is a loving person. He does everything that he can
in the name of love, be it toxic, or good,  yet his actions are questionable. As he quoted,
“Sometimes you have to do bad things for the people you love.”
He was isolated from people all his teen years and was forced to read about people in books. He
became the observer most of his life and the books became his friends. Reading books made him
intelligent, but the trauma stuck with him and led him to do unspeakable things.
We would like to conclude our presentation on a light note.