Psychoanalysis and Cinema

• Psychoanalysis and cinema have had a long and complex relationship, influencing each other significantly.
• Films often use therapists, dream logic, and unconscious drives to enhance storytelling.

Development of Cinema and Psychoanalysis

• Cinema emerged in the 1890s with the Lumière brothers, coinciding with Freud's "Studies on Hysteria" in 1895.
• Early filmmakers recognized the dream-like qualities of film, such as its use of images, symbols, and non-linear narrative structures.
• Hugo Münsterberg proposed in 1916 that film mirrors the workings of the human mind.

Therapists as Characters in Film

• Therapists are used to reveal characters' inner feelings, replacing the need for expository voiceovers.
• Therapists are often used to deliver comprehensive explanations at the end of thrillers, providing closure.
• They may serve as comic relief, skeptics, or rational foils to the supernatural.
• A foil is a character who contrasts with another to highlight differences, such as a rational therapist versus chaotic supernatural events.

The Use of Psychoanalysis as a Prop in Various Genres

• Genres often prioritize their conventions over realistic depictions of therapy.
• In romantic comedies and musicals, therapy serves the genre's needs rather than portraying genuine healing processes.
• "Lovesick" (1983) exemplifies this, where a therapist falls in love with a patient, violating ethical boundaries for comedic effect.
• The genre dictates how therapy is depicted on screen, not the realities of psychotherapy.

The Myth of the “Cathartic Cure”

• Obsolete idea that unearthing a repressed memory leads to instant healing.
• Films often portray psychoanalysis as stuck in Freud's early stages (circa 1895).
• Audiences are drawn to this concept because it offers dramatic, emotional resolution within a short time frame.

The Evolution of Therapists in Film

• Golden era (1957–1963) showed therapists as wise and healing figures (e.g., "Three Faces of Eve," "Splendor in the Grass").
• Post-1960s, psychoanalysis came to be seen as part of a rigid system ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest").
• In the 1990s, portrayals shifted toward therapists being neurotic, unhelpful, or unethical (e.g., Woody Allen films).

Representation of Women Therapists

• Female therapists treating male patients are frequently depicted as falling in love and crossing professional boundaries.
• Examples: "Spellbound," "Prince of Tides," "Mr. Jones".
• Common trope that women therapists cannot resist attraction to their patients.

Psychoanalytic Film Criticism

• Scholars apply psychoanalysis to analyze films through different lenses:
• Cultural Mythology: Examining the values and beliefs a film portrays (e.g., therapy as a quick fix).
• Filmmaker’s Unconscious: Interpreting the film as a reflection of the director's personal struggles.
• Developmental Crises: Analyzing films for psychological growth themes (e.g., "Beauty and the Beast").
• Films as Dreams: Recognizing the use of symbols and displacement akin to dream analysis.
• Spectatorship (the gaze): Understanding how the viewer's desires and unconscious influence film interpretation.
• Character Analysis: Least favored among scholars, involves analyzing characters as if they were real people.

The Influence of Pop Culture and Therapy

• Real therapy has adopted cinematic terms such as "flashbacks".
• Patients' expectations of therapy are influenced by cinematic portrayals, including hypnosis, memory recovery, and catharsis.
• Psychoanalytic concepts are prevalent even in horror and science fiction (e.g., "Alien" and the Kleinian paranoid-schizoid position).