Film and psychoanalysis Essays - Freudian Psychology, Complex

Film and psychoanalysis Essays - Freudian Psychology, Complex Film and psychoanalysis Barbara Creed Psychoanalysis and the cinema were born at the end of the nineteenth century. They share a common historical, social, and cultural background shaped by the forces of modernity. Theorists commonly explore how psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on the importance of desire in the life of the individual, has influenced the cinema. Not only did Freud draw on cinematic terms to describe his theories, as in screen memories, but a number of his key ideas were developed in visual terms-particularly the theory of castration Further, as Freud (who loved Sherlock Holmes) was aware, his case histories unfold very much like popular mystery novels of the kind that were also adopted by the cinema from its inception. Surrealism- deeply influences by Freuds theory of dreams and his concept of the unconscious - Science fiction Oedipal Female characters present for the enjoyment of male protagonists (and viewers), the female form is also threatening (invokes mans unconscious anxieties about sexual difference and castration): Either the male protagonist could deal with this threat (as in the films of Hitckcock) by subjecting woman to his sadistic gaze and punishing her for being different or he could deny her difference (as in films of Joseph von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich) and fetishize her body by overvaluing a part of her body such as her legs or breasts.