Postmodern Depthlessness and the Psyche

This article will consider how Carrie Fisher's presentation of the postmodern psyche draws attention to the popular assimilation of Freudian theory during the twentieth century and foregrounds the cultural currency of psychoanalysis and therapy in the Hollywood community. Postcards From the Edge follows the progress of recovering drug addict, Suzanne Vale, whose experience is often characterised by emotional, psychological, linguistic and reality displacement. I begin my discussion by examining the numerous acts of displacement exhibited in the text before considering how the postmodern displacement of reality is linked to Fisher's presentation of the contemporary psyche. The acts of displacement in the novel involve a generalised sense of substitution, replacement or removal as well as offering a more specific engagement with the Freudian concept of displacement as the projection of an anxiety or desire from an original object onto the image of another.