If Freud got the chance to comment on Jack Bauer’s masculinity, he would probably say that Jack’s masculinity is based off of childhood anxieties and abnormal behavior. Jack Bauer is obsessed with his job of hunting down terrorists, to the point of even putting it ahead of his family issues. When his daughter sneaks out of the house, before Jack becomes heavily involved with stopping the terrorist plot that has just started, he decides to leave his wife to deal with the problem so that he can be called in to work. Clearly there is something to his job that he feels is more important and more pressing than that of his daughter’s safety. Freud would argue that this reasoning, which he may describe as neurotic behavior, is a result of fears that Jack experienced as a child. With those fears still buried in his subconscious, Jack would feel that dealing with terrorism is more important than dealing with his problems at home.
Once at work, the audience learns that Jack Bauer once had an affair with his coworker. This behavior is not looked on kindly by society and Freud would be quick to point out that this action is clearly a result of Jack’s process of becoming an adult not going smoothly. Freud would explain that infants show signs of sexuality that must be molded as they grow to become socially acceptable as adults. When Jack has an affair, he is stepping outside the bounds of what was expected of him. Freud would most likely point out that, where many people would see Jack Bauer as a very masculine character, he is actually flawed sexually and acts based on his fears – not an image of an ideal man.
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