Eyes Wide Shut: Sex, Power, and the Hidden Psychology of Elite Societies

By Tim Madsen

"The dream is over-or has it just begun?"

Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut has long fascinated and unsettled audiences. Dismissed by some as an erotic thriller and hailed by others as a cryptic masterpiece, it remains one of the most misunderstood films of the late 20th century. In Eyes Wide Shut: Sex, Power, and the Hidden Psychology of Elite Societies, this enigmatic final work is examined in full depth-through the lenses of psychoanalysis, political power, ritual theory, and cinematic symbolism.

Divided into ten focused chapters, this book explores the film's central questions:
What does it mean to be "awake" in a society built on illusion?
What secrets are embedded in sex, ritual, and status?
And why does Kubrick place one man's unraveling identity at the center of a world governed by masks?

More than a film analysis, this is a psychological and cultural investigation. Drawing from the works of Freud, Foucault, Schnitzler, and Kubrick himself, the book reveals how Eyes Wide Shut confronts the fragility of identity, the architecture of secrecy, and the shadow life of modern power.

For cinephiles, scholars, and curious minds alike, this is an invitation to look deeper-and to ask why we so often choose to keep our eyes wide shut.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FK317MV7
• ISBN13: 9798294222048
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 38 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"