self-destructive artist unable to maintain a relationship with reality". Psychiatrist Barbara Young writes that Hour of the Wolf, like Persona, was about "the disintegration of a personality" (also rejecting Gado's commentary on "Bergman's own unraveling" and instead praising his courage for addressing his issues). The artist's "humiliation" is also depicted. Gado connects Johan to Karin in Bergman's 1961 Through a Glass Darkly, remarking that Johan is at a crossroads where he "must choose between two worlds": real life and his nightmare visions. Gado considers whether Johan may fear he is homosexual, writing Johan's "perversity manifests itself in transvestism, masochism, and necrophilia, yet none of these necessarily indicates homosexuality". Williams links the artistic visions with "oppression by a group of aristocrats", as the castle's people become vampire-like and "the unreality of Johan's world takes over". Scholar Egil Törnqvist compares what he saw as vampirism in Hour of the Wolf to that in Persona, adding that the portrayals are similar to themes in the work of playwright August Strindberg. Writer Laura Hubner asserts the legend of the werewolf also informed themes of "fission and conflict" and "confused sexuality". According to Hubner, the film's central notion of cannibalism, with a fear of being consumed, is linked to lycanthropy and the legend of Little Red Riding Hood, and these legends are also associated with sexual awakening. Academic Gordon Thomas discusses a theme of a relationship in which one person's identity is absorbed into another's. Thomas wrote, "the von Merkens et al. are manifestations of Johan's own self-loathing, and Alma, because she loves him, must be present at her husband's phantasmagorical inquisition". Critic Robin Wood compares Hour of the Wolf to Persona in how Alma becomes able to see Johan's "inner horrors", while in Persona Alma is affected by Elisabet's views. While recognizing insanity as a major theme, writer José Teodoro argues another (shared with Bergman's later Shame and The Passion of Anna) is "the realization that it is impossible for any one person to truly know another", with Alma realizing she never understood her husband. Authors have related the story's couple to Bergman's real-life relationships: Thomas theorizes that during production Ullmann was at peace' with the world, while her genius boyfriend was not". Young notes Bergman had abandoned his wife Käbi Laretei and son Daniel for Ullmann, yet Hour of the Wolf is dedicated to Laretei, suggesting the story of the disintegrating artist was