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Comparing Cinema And Psychoanalysis

Decent Essays

Both Cinema and Psychoanalysis were born at the end of the 19th century. They share a common historical background shaped by the changes that modernity imposed over the Western societies. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why psychoanalysis influenced cinema so much. At the time the brothers Lumière were screening the first results of the ‘cinematograph’, Freud and Joseph Breuer had recently published their studies on Hysteria (The Guardian, 2001). In this essay I will analyse how my way of understanding and reading films has changed because of the acknowledgement of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories and their influence on film. (Hill, Gibson, 1998)
Sigmund Freud started to practice hypnosis on his patients after he studied in Paris with …show more content…

Before then, psychologists like Wundt and Skinner had concentrated in the introspective analysis of the ‘normal’ human mind. There were aiming to ‘unmask’ the conscience, showing it like a puppet at the mercy of primitive impulses. They studied human actions and reactions to these impulses, but not the mental processes surrounding them. Mental illnesses were considered ‘organic’; it was thought that they were produced by some kind of deterioration or disease of the brain (LLC, 2016) . The research done around mental illness tried to discover what changes of the brain would lead to insanity. Many diseases did not show any physical mental damage but it was assumed that the techniques were not yet sufficient. The psychological causes were ignored. Freud changed this perspective forever (Silverman, 1985).
Freud was reluctant to the fusion of psychoanalysis and film. He rejected several offers from major studios to write scripts and he disliked being filmed or photograph (The Guardian, 2001). This did not stop his theories from leaving a mark in film. His explanation of the human mind presented cinema with a full range of ideas to develop and expand

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