Myth Mind And The Screen

This 2001 book is a systematic attempt to apply Jungian theory to the analysis of key contemporary icons and films.

Myth, Mind and the Screen is a systematic attempt to apply Jungian theory to the analysis of films (including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Silence of the Lambs and The Piano) as well as a variety of cultural icons and products such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and televised sport.

Changing business circumstances have put pressure on film studios and changed the nature of films they produce. This book examines the reaction of the corporations who have found themselves in danger or have perceived new ways of adding to their profitability, influencing the films they produce.

The latent symbolism in film imagery can be psychoanalyzed just like the imagery in dreams. This work applies to film the psychoanalytic techniques of Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Joseph Campbell, Otto Rank and Rollo May, providing a fundamental understanding of film symbols and structure. It offers a comprehensive and eclectic approach to film analysis, using a broad variety of theories and examples from both classic and contemporary movies, from Dracula (1930) to American Beauty (1999). The final chapter applies all the previously discussed techniques to one film, Malcolm X (1992). The work boasts a filmography and bibliography and is illustrated with film stills. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Jungian film studies is a fast-growing academic field, but Jungian and post-Jungian concepts are still new to many academics and film critics. Helena Bassil-Morozow and Luke Hockley present Jungian Film Studies: The Essential Guide, the first book to bring together all the different strands, issues and arguments in the discipline, and guide the reader through the various ways in which Jungian psychology can be applied to moving images. Bassil-Morozow and Hockley cover a range of Jungian concepts including the collective unconscious, archetypes, the individuation process, alchemy, and signs and symbols, showing how they can be used to discuss the core cinematic issues such as narrative structure, gender, identity, genre, authorship, and phenomenology. The authors argue that, as a place where the unconscious and conscious meet, cinema offers the potential for imagery that is psychologically potent, meaningful, and that plays a role in our personal psychological development. This much-needed book, which bridges the space between Jungian concepts and traditional film theory, will be essential reading for scholars and students of Analytical Psychology, psychoanalysis, Jungian film studies, media, film and cultural studies, psychosocial psychology and clinical psychology. It will also appeal to analytical psychologists, psychotherapists and readers with an interest in film analysis.

Why is the moving image so important in our lives? What is the link between the psychology of Jung, Freud and films? How do film and psychology address the problems of modernity? Visible Mind is a book about why film is so important to contemporary life, how film affects us psychologically as individuals, and how it affects us culturally as collective social beings. Since its inception, film has been both responsive to historical cultural conditions and reflective of changes in psychological and emotional needs. Arising at the same moment over a century ago, both film and psychoanalysis helped to frame the fragmented experience of modern life in a way that is still with us today. Visible Mind pays attention to the historical context of film for what it can tell us about our inner lives, past and present. Christopher Hauke discusses a range of themes from the perspective of film and analytical psychology, these include: The Face, The Shadow, Narrative and Story, Reality in Film, Cinema and the American Psyche, the use of Movies in the Psychotherapy Session and Archetypal themes in popular film. Unique to Visible Mind, six interviews with top film professionals from different departments both unlocks the door on the role of the unconscious in their creative process, and brings alive the reflexive critical thinking on modernity, postmodernity and Jungian psychology found throughout Visible Mind. Visible Mind is written for academics, filmmakers and students who want to understand what Jung and Freud's psychology can offer on the subject of filmmaking and the creative process, for therapists of any background who want to know more about the significance of movies in their work and for film lovers in general who are curious about what makes movies work.

Jungian Theory for Storytellers is a toolkit for anyone using Jungian archetypes to create stories in fiction, TV, film, video games, documentaries, poetry, and many other media. It contains a detailed classification of the archetypes, with relevant examples, and explains how they work in different types of narratives. Importantly, Bassil-Morozow explores archetypes and their significance in characterization, individuation, plot and story-building. Bassil-Morozow also presents an overview of Jung’s thoughts on creativity and other Jungian concepts, including the unconscious, ego, persona and self and the individuation process, and shows how they are linked to conflict. The book provides an explanation of relevant Jungian terms for a non-Jungian audience and introduces the idea of the hero’s journey, with examples included throughout. Accessibly written yet academic, both practical and engaging, and written with a non-Jungian audience in mind, Jungian Theory for Storytellers is an ideal source for writers and screenwriters of all backgrounds, including academics and teachers, who want to use Jungian theory in their work or are seeking to understand relevant Jungian ideas.

Imagining the Arctic explores the culture and politics of polar exploration and the making of its heroes. Leading explorers, the celebrity figures of their day, went to great lengths to convince their contemporaries of the merits of polar voyages. Much of exploration was in fact theatre: a series of performances to capture public attention and persuade governments to finance ambitious proposals. The achievements of explorers were promoted, celebrated, and manipulated, whilst explorers themselves became the subject of huge attention. Huw Lewis-Jones draws upon recovered texts and striking images, many reproduced for the first time since the nineteenth century, to show how exploration was projected through a series of spectacular visuals, helping us to reconstruct the ways that heroes and the wilderness were imagined. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Imagining the Arctic offers original insights into our understanding of exploration and its pull on the public imagination.