The Split Self in the Digital Age: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Techno-Identity in the Netflix Series Kübra

Abstract

The current research examines how digital media augments the splitting of the self in the contemporary world in the Netflix series Kübra through the Freudian psychoanalytic theory. The main aspect of Freud’s model of the psyche is the dynamic conflict between id, ego, and the superego, as well as the persistent influence of the unconscious in shaping subjectivity. Keeping this theory in consideration, the study interprets the mysterious online techno-identity Kübra as an externalized representation of Gökhan’s unconscious desires, repressed fears, and latent wishes for authority, certainty, and recognition. This techno-identity helps in returning the repressed feelings, enabling impulses normally censored by the ego and superego to re-emerge in disguised, technologically mediated form. The paper argues that Gökhan’s escalating dependency on Kübra dramatizes the ego’s weakening boundaries in the face of digital omnipresence, allowing fantasy to infiltrate reality and destabilize the cohesion of the self. By analyzing key scenes and character interactions, this research highlights how the series enacts core Freudian arguments within a technologically saturated environment. Ultimately, the paper contends that Kübra reveals a distinctly modern form of psychic splitting, wherein digital platforms enable individuals to negotiate internal conflict not through introspection but through technologically amplified fantasy, thus reshaping the Freudian self for the digital age.