psychoanalytic explorations

Required Reading before course starts:

Pre-reading for all:

Glen Gabbard: The Psychoanalyst at the Movies

Pre-Reading for non Psyartists. For those who have not taken the Psychology of Art course or who wish to refresh their knowledge:

Sigmund Freud: Creative Writers and Daydreaming. (Freud Reader).

The Psychodynamic Approach: Sigmund Freud

Nicola Glover: Psychoanalytic Aesthetics - The British School. Chapter 1 (inroduction and chapters 2-3 highly recommended)

Harry Trosman: Towards a Psychoanalytic Iconography (Psychoanalysis and Art Reader)

Recommended Reading for all:

Barbara Creed – Film and Psychoanalysis

Andrea Sabbadini: Introduction to The Couch and the Silver Screen: Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema

Useful References:

PsyFilm Syllabus 2010. Psychoanalysis and Art Reader. Freud Reader. Joseph Dodds: Glossary of Key Psychoanalytic Terms (2008). Doug Davis: A Glossary of Freudian Terminology. Modules on Freud (unconscious, psycho-sexual development, repression, neurosis, transference, trauma). Forum for Movies and Mind. Projections Journal. Psychoanalysis and Art Website. Psychoanalysis and Society Website

1. The Dream Screen - Introduction to Psychoanalysis and Film: Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou and Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries

Required Reading: Andrew Webber: Cut and Laced – Traumatism and Fetishism in Luis Brunel's Un Chien Andalou.

Elizabeth Cowie: The cinematic dream-work of Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries.

Luke Hockley: Cinematic Projections – The Analytical Psychology of CG Jung and Film Theory – Intro and Chapter 1.

Recommended Reading on Wild Strawberries: Harvey Roy Greenberg: The Rags of Time: Psychoanalytic Notes on Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Erick Erickson: Wild Strawberries - Dr Borg's Life Cycle. Video: Interview with Ingmar Bergman (1/6). Peter Cowie: Wild Strawberries. Powerpoint: Images of Ageing in the Cinema

Recommended Reading on Psychoanalysis, Dreams and Film: Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (and study guide). J. M. Magrini: “Surrealism” and the Omnipotence of Cinema. Paula Murphy: Psychoanalysis and Film Theory Part 1: ‘A New Kind of Mirror. Lucia Villela: From Film as Case Study to Film as Myth: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Analysis of Cinema and Culture. Psyart Powerpoint

Surrealism Links and Articles: Bruno Solarik: The Walking Abyss: Perspectives on Contemporary Czech and Slovak Surrealism. Andre Breton: Manifesto of Surrealism (1924). Lenka Bydzovská: Against the Current: The Story of the Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia. Rostrup: The Surrealists & Freud. David Lomas: The Haunted Self: Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, Subjectivity. Surrealist Centre Papers. Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group. Mould: Dusan Marek, a Land-locked Czech Surrealist in the Antipodes (2007).Tanya Krzywinska: Transgression, transformation and titillation in Valerie a týden divů. Dalí: Psychoanalysis and Pictorial Surrealism. S.I. Archive. Debord: Theory of the Derive

2. Growing Up in Celluloid: Children Watching Movies. Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth

Required Reading:

Herbert H. Stein: A Family Romance Fantasy in “Pan’s Labyrinth”: Magical Wombs Part IV.

Ira Konigsberg (2003) Children Watching Movies

Plus any one of the recommended readings below

Recommended Reading:

Paula Jean Manners: Frodo's Journey, a Kleinian Perspective. Suzanne Lake: Object Relations in Harry Potter. Arlene Kramer Richards: Girl Into Woman: Growing Strong. A View of Pan's Labyrinth. Alexander Stein (2006) Tricycles, Bicycles, Life Cycles: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Childhood Loss and Transgenerational Parenting in Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003). Herbert H. Stein: Oedipal and Latency Dynamics in the Original Star Wars Trilogy. Chris Wood: Finding the Father: A Psychoanalytic Study of Rebel without a Cause. Chris Vogler: Hero's journey/writer's journey

3. The Comic Imagination: Charlie Chaplin's City Lights

Required Reading: Arthur Rankin: Tendentious Innocence: Chaplin’s Use of Doubling in City Lights and The Idle Class.

For Non Psyartists: Freud's Theory of Humour. Sigmund Freud: On Humour (Freud Reader)

Audio: BBC Radio. 5 Programmes (A. Phillips, W. Allen, J. Mitchell, D. Bell) Freudian Slips on 'Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious'. Stephen Weissman: "Chaplin: A Life"

Recommended Reading: Reviews for Weissman's 'Chaplin: A Life'. Sigmund Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (Freud Reader, study guide here). Paula Murphy: Psychoanalysis and Film Theory Part 2: 'Reflections and Refutations’. Shane Herron: Bewilderment and Suspension Bridges: The Joke as Symptom of Language (2006). Sigmund Freud: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901). Cengiz Erdem: Cinema and Psychoanalysis

4. Gender, Desire and Phantasy in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

Required Reading: At least two of the following:

Glen Gabbard (1998) Vertigo: Female Objectification, Male Desire, and Object Loss.

Robert Samuels (2000) Vertigo: Sexual Disorientation and the Engendering of the Real.

Emanuel Berman (1997) Vertigo: collapse of rescue phantasy

Recommended Reading:

Neurophilosophy: The Psychology of Alfred Hitchcock

Bill Schaffer: Cutting The Flow: Thinking Psycho

David Boyd: The Parted Eye: Spellbound and Psychoanalysis

Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Plus summary

Hitchcock and Psychoanalysis Links. Powerpoint on Mulvey, Hitchcock and Feminist Film Theory

5. The Uncanny World of Jan Švankmajer

Required Reading: Sigmund Freud: The Uncanny (part 1 and 2, and in Freud Reader). Helen Robinson: Two Short Films by Jan Svankmajer. Plus one from the recommended reading.

Recommended Reading: Dirk de Bruyn: Re-animating the Lost Objects d' Childhood: Jan Svankmajer. Dirk de Bruyn: Chasing Rabbits out of the Hat and into the SHEDding of Childhood. David Sorfa: The Object of Film in Jan Svankmajer. Sebastian Manle: Life Sentence: Dreams of Captivity and Freedom in Jan Svankmajer’s Sílení. Paul Wells: Animated anxiety. Jan Švankmajer, Surrealism and the "agit-scare".

Links: Svankmajer links/articles. Svankmajer: 'Lunacy'. Svankmaker Timeline.

6. The Double in Film: Fight Club, The Student of Prague and The Dark Knight

Required Reading: Wolff Bernstein: Fight Club (plus response by Michael Sinason). Plus at least one of the recommended readings.

Recommended Reading: Donato Torato: The Contemporary Dopplegänger. Robin Freed: "I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct" - Fight Club and the American Mythology of Violence in the Postmodern Moment (especially 'the fracturing of the self'). David Church: Remaining Men Together: Fight Club and the (Un)pleasures of Unreliable Narration. Herbert H. Stein: Twin's of "The Dark Knight". Gry Faurholt: Self as Other.

7. Psychotic Fragmentation and Twinship in David Cronenberg's Spider and Dead Ringers

Required Reading: Jonathan Sklar and Andrea Sabbadini (2008) David Cronenberg's Spider: Between Confusion and Fragmentation. Plus one of the following readings on Dead Ringers.

Vogel Judy (2003) Deadly Narcissism in Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.

Corinee Oster (1999) Dead Ringers: A Case of Psychosis in Twins

Joaquin Canizares (2010) The strange case of Dr Mantle and Dr Mantle: David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.

Recommended Reading: Patricia MacCormack: Phantasmatic Fissures:Spider. Charles Levin: The Body of the Imagination in David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch

8. Midterm Exam. Plus Memory, Identity and Loss in Tassos Boulmetis'A Touch of Spice

Required Reading: Cosimo Urbano: Projections, Suspense, and Anxiety: The Modern Horror Film and its Effects.

Joseph Dodds: The Monstrous Brain – A Neuropsychoanalytic Aesthetics of Horror.

9. Projecting Anxiety: The Paradox of Horror 1 - Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Required Reading: Joseph Dodds (2010) The Monstrous Brain: A Neuropsychoanalytic Aesthetics of Horror?

Plus either: N. Hess (2010): The Shining: All Work and No Play... or Andrea Sabbadini (2000) Watching Voyeurs: Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960)

Recommended Reading: Steven Schneider: Monsters as (Uncanny) Metaphors: Freud, Lakoff, and the Representation of Monstrosity in Cinematic Horror. Steven Jay Schneider: Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud's Worst Nightmare. Michael Levine: A Fun Night Out: Horror and Other Pleasures of the Cinema.

10. Projecting Anxiety: The Paradox of Horror 2 - Slavoj Zizek's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

Required Reading: Anneke Smelik: Review of Barbara Creed's Phallic Panic: Film, Horror & the Primal Uncanny.

Plus either Andrea Kuhn: The Monstrous Feminine and Candyman or Donato Totaro: The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror

Recommended Reading: LeDrew: Jokes and Their Relation to the Uncanny: Comedy, horror and pleasure in Audition and Romero's Dead films. Joseph Dodds: Horror and the Primal Uncanny of Nature. Kristeva: Approaching Abjection. Stefan Gullatz: Exquisite Ex-timacy: Jacques Lacan vis-à-vis Contemporary Horror. Slavoj Zizek Page. Glyn Daley: Slavoj Zizek, A Primer. Ian Parker: Slavoj Zizek: A Critical Introduction.

11. Sci-Fi: Blade Runner and The Matrix Trilogy

Required Reading: Duncan Cartwright: β-Mentality in The Matrix trilogy.

Slavoj Zizek: The Matrix: The Truth of the Exaggerations.

Plus at least one of the following:

-William Fred: Blade Runner: An Interpretation

-Slavoj Zizek: Lacan as a viewer of Alien.

-Robert Maxwell Young: Alien3.

Recommended Reading: Charles Leary (2005) What is the Matrix? Cinema, Totality, and Topophilia. Slavoj Zizek: The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion. Herbert H. Stein: Anal Fantasies and Anal Defenses in “Men in Black”. Robert Peaslee: "With great power comes great responsibility": Central psychoanalytic motifs in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. Joseph Dodds (2010): The Rise of the Eco-Disaster Film. Stacey Scriver (2009): Subjectivity, Identity and 300 Spartans

12. Memory, Mourning and Trauma: The Pianist and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Required Reading: Alexander Stein: Music and trauma in Polanski's The Pianist (2002).

Michel Gondry: The Return of the Erased: Memory and Forgetfulness in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind.

Recommended Reading: Sandra Fenster: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Regression and the angel of death.

Michael Brearley and Andrea Sabbadini: The Truman Show: How's it Going to End?

Noel Hess (1999) Chinatown

13. The Lynchian Universe: Mullholland Drive and Blue Velvet

Required Reading: Any two of the following on Mullholland Drive:

Joseph Barbera and Henry Moller (2007) Mulholland Drive: A Self-Psychology Perspective.

Corina Vaida and Victor Wildman (2005) Mulholland Drive.

Herbert H. Stein (2010) A Psychoanalytic Tour of “Mulholland Drive”.

Recommended Reading: Stefan Gullatz: The Enigmatic Mr. Lynch.

Danielle Knafo and Kenneth Feiner (2002) Film Review Essay Blue Velvet: David Lynch's Primal Scene. Photo-synposis of Mulholland Drive. Theories and discussion on Mulholland Drive at mulholland-drive.net

Torsten Lange: Monstrosity, Anxiety and the Real: Representations of the Victorian Metropolis in David Lynch's The Elephant Man.

14. Cinematherapy and Diagnoses Seen in Movies (DSM). Presentations 2

Recommended Reading: Richard Almond (2006) Revisiting Groundhog Day (1993): Cinematic Depiction of Mutative Process.

Marion Minerbo (2005) Two faces of Thanatos: Broken flowers (2005) and Ai no corrida (1976).

Norman Doidge (2001) Diagnosing the English Patient: Schizoid Fantasies of being Skinless and of being Buried Alive.

Donald R. Ross and Marcus Favero (2002) The Experience of Borderline Phenomena through Cinema: Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and Pulp Fiction.

Maureen Sheehan (2004) The Hours: The ‘as-if’ personality and problems of loving.

Yanof Almodovar (2005) Perversion in La mala educación.

Harriet Wrye (2005): Perversion annihilates creativity and love: A passion for destruction in The Piano Teacher (2001)

Links: Cinematherapy.com, Dr Solomon's Cinema Therapy, Diagnoses Seen In Movies (DSM).

15. Final Exam

Further Psychoanalytic Readings of Film

Slavoj Zizek: From Che Vuoi? to Fantasy Lacan with Eyes Wide Shut.

S., Lombardi, R. (2004). Stanley Kubrick's swan song: Eyes wide shut.

Slavoj Zizek: Lacan as a viewer of Casablanca.

Andrea Sabbadini: Letters, Words and Metaphors: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Michael Radford's 'Il Postino'.

Dr Candy Aubry: Freedom through Re-introjection: 'Harry, he's here to help' - A Kleinian Perspective 117 min

Will Wright: Argento and the Giallo: Dario Argento, Maestro Auteur or Master Misogynist?