In Spellbound (1945), Alfred Hitchcock creates a world of suspense that follows the story of Dr. Constance Peterson and John Ballantine's search for the truth behind both his identity and the disappearance of Dr. Anthony Edwardes. The cat and mouse games move the plot forward. However while Peterson and Ballantine search to discover his identity, other issues of identity and mental clarity come to the forefront of the audience's mind. This group of readings seeks to look at the issues of identity and the mind within the film. Themes that have emerged are Dr. Peterson's portrayal of female identity as she navigates a male-dominated world, the issue of Ballantine's identity as an extension of Freud's theories of Psychoanalysis, and finally the role of the surrealist dream sequence within the film and within the Hollywood system.