Psychological views on anxiety are very diverse, many theories have been developed to overcome anxiety problems. Anxiety is a topic that is never quiet to study, because humans have their own causes of anxiety. This study aims to analyze the anxiety and defense mechanisms of the main characters in The Queen's Gambit series season 1 based on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory. This study uses a qualitative method with a narrative analysis approach to The Queen's Gambit series season 1. Data were collected through observation of scenes relevant to the psychological conflict of the main character.
Freud divided the types of threats into three main categories: reality, neurotic, and moral anxiety. The anxiety experienced by Beth is categorized as reality anxiety arises when Beth faces external pressures such as gender discrimination and social expectations in the male-dominated chess world, neurotic anxiety emerges from internal conflicts between her unconscious drives (id) and her ego’s effort to maintain control, particularly seen in her fear of failure and drug dependence. The findings also reveal that Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit employs various ego defense mechanisms to cope with her anxiety and inner conflicts, including rationalization (justifying her drug dependency to maintain focus), sublimation (channeling emotional pressure into chess), fixation (persistent dependency on tranquilizers since childhood), displacement (redirecting frustration into the game and social interactions), and projection (attributing her own fears and doubts to others).
Keywords: psychoanalysis theory of sigmund freud, anxiety, defense mechanism, the queen's gambit