Psychoanalysis and Film

251 Pages·2001·6.512 MB·English

by  Glen O. Gabbard

PSYCHOANALYSIS FILM

a
edited by Glen 0. Gabbard

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS KEY PAPERS SERIES
Series Editor: Paul Williams

Joint Editors-in-Chief: Glen O. Gabbard & Paul Williams

K A R N AC
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND FILM

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND FIL M
Edited and with an Introduction by Glen O. Gabbard
International Journal ofPsychoanalysis Key Papers Series

Series Editor: Paul Williams

London and New York

KARNAC
First published in 2001 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT
A subsidiary of Other Press LLC, New York.
Arrangement, Introduction copyright © 2001 Institute of Psychoanalysis; chap­
ters 1-25 copyright © 2000 Institute of Psychoanalysis, republished by permis­
sion of the International Journal of*Psyckoanatysis.
The rights of Glen O. Gabbard, Jacob A. Arlow, Emanuel Berman, Herbert H.
Stein, Adrienne Harris, Harriet Kimble Wrye, Andrea Sabbadini, Simona Argen-
tieri, Bruce H. Sklarew, Eric J. Nuetzel, Diana Diamond, Mechthild Zeul, Ronald
Baker, Slavoj Zizek, Noel Hess, Krin Gabbard, Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Kim-
berlyn Leary, Ronit Matalon, Donald Moss, Lynne Zeavin and Philip A. Ring-
strom to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in
accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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A CI.P. for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 85575 275 7
Edited and typeset by the International Journal of Psychoanalysis
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CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
Glen O. Gabbard
2. The end of time: a psychoanalytic perspective
Wild Strawberries
on Ingmar Bergman's
Jacob A. Arlow, New York
3. Hitchcock's Vertigo: the collapse of a rescue fantasy
Emanuel Berman, Haifa, Israel
The Crying Game
4. Neil Jordan's
Glen O. Gabbard, Topeka, KS
5. Hidden in the imagery:
The Conformist
an unconscious scene in
Herbert H. Stein, New York
vi CONTENTS
6. "Ah doctor, is there nothin' I can take?":
A Review of Reservoir Dogs 75
Adrienne Harris, New York
7. Arthur Penn's Night Moves: a film that interprets us 83
Emanuel Berman, Israel
8. Lone Star: signs, borders and thresholds 93
Harriet Kimble Wrye, Pacific Palisades
9. Letters, words and metaphors:
a psychoanalytic reading of Michael Radford's II PostinolOl
Andrea Sabbadini, London
10. TrufTaut and the failure of introjection 107
Simona Argentieri, Rome
11.1 have not spoken: silence in The Piano 115
Bruce H. Sklarew, Chevy Chase, MD
12. Over-exposure: Terry ZwigofTs Crumb 121
Eric J. Nuetzel, St. Louis
13. Narrating desire and desiring narration:
a psychoanalytic reading of The English Patient 129
Diana Diamond, New York
CONTENTS
14. The Remains of the Day 147

Mechthild Zeul, Madrid
15. Deconstructing Dirty Harry: Clint Eastwood's
undoing of the Hollywood myth of screen masculinity 153

Ronald Baker, London

16. The thing from inner space: Titanic and Deep Impact 161

Slavoj Zizek, Ljubljana

17. Chinatown 169

Noel Hess, London
18. Saving Private Ryan's surplus repression 17 7

Krin Gabbard, New York

19. M(1931) 183

Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Paris
20. Remembering and repeating in Eve's Bayou 193

Kimberlyn Leary, Ann Arbor, MI

21. Watching voyeurs:

201

Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960)
Andrea Sabbadini, London
viii CONTENTS
22. Egoyan's Exotica: where does the real horror reside?211
Ronit Matalon and Emanuel Berman, Israel
23. The real thing? Some thoughts on Boys Don't-Cry 221

Donald Moss and Lynne Zeavin, New York

24. 15 minutes of fame revisited: Being John Malkovich 229

Glen O. Gabbard, Topeka, KS

25. The Sixth Sense 235

Philip A. Ringstrom
l. INTRODUCTION
GLEN O. GABBARD
In 1895 there were two auspicious births. The Lumiere brothers
invented a rudimentary film projector, signifying the birth of the
cinema, and Studies in Hysteria appeared, inaugurating the new sci­
ence of psychoanalysis. Throughout the twentieth century the two
new disciplines have been inextricably linked. As early as 1900 a
writer would describe his psychotic episode in terms of 'the magic
lantern' effects of the nickelodeons (Schneider, 1985). By 1916 Har­
vard psychologist Hugo Munsterberg was applying psychological
understanding to the study of the cinema. He suggested that 'the
photo play* more or less replicated the mechanisms of the mind in a
way that was more compelling than the typical narrative forms of
storytelling. In 1931 the American film industry was already being
called a 'dream factory' (Ehrenburg, 1931), reflecting the close
resemblance between film imagery and the work of dreams.
The cinema and psychoanalysis have! a natural affinity. Claude
Chabrol, the esteemed French film-maker, reported in an inter­
view that he had collaborated with a psychoanalyst in the writing
of his film, ha Ceremonie (Feinstein, 1996). He explained why such
collaboration was useful: 'It's very hard/when you deal with char­
acters, not to use the Freudian grid, because the Freudian grid is
composed of signs that also apply to the cinema' (1996, p. 82).
The marriage between movies and psychoanalysis occurred in
spite o/^Sigmund Freud. As far as we know, Freud had little regard