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Monsoon Programme 2008
(19 July - 23 August)
Psychoanalysis & Cinema |
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The activities of the Psychoanalytic Movie Club form an integral part of the psychoanalytic curriculum at the Institute of Psychotherapy, and are very popular with the students for obvious reasons.
Film studies, often seen as a sub-discipline within culture studies, has evolved into a mature discipline in its own right with strong academic scholarship, and psychoanalysis is regarded as one of the most important methodological tools within the discipline. The critical strategies adopted in movie analysis vary in the locus of attention and the level of sophistication. At one level, movies are treated as case studies and fictional characters are used to demonstrate normal and pathological mental mechanisms, and then an attempt is made to bring out the unconscious movie hidden within the manifest movie. In the process, psychobiography of the director and the actors, and psychological study of cinematic genre all become important elements. Finally, audience response, or the lack of it, shows us how these deeper conflicts and desires resonate within our psyche, and helps us understand the psychological factors that go into turning a movie into a super-hit or an utter-flop. These multiple strategies analyze the film experience by, as the noted film theorist Charles Altman put it, ‘seeing the screen as a window or a frame’ and ‘seeing it as a mirror’, and by the two different conceptualizations of ‘film as a reflection of reality’ and ‘film as mental operation’.
Since the focus of the Institute of Psychotherapy is essentially clinical, movie analysis has the objective of helping the student understand human psyche. Hence, a movie is analyzed at one of the three levels – as a complete case in itself to understand the character of the protagonists and the underlying dynamics between the characters, then as what is technically known as a ‘transference situation’ wherein the affective response of the viewer becomes significant and turns into a mini self-analysis, and finally, the movie is looked at as a dream or symptom in itself. The objective of this exercise in analysis is essentially to understand psychoanalysis and the psychotherapeutic process, and in the process one ends up with a deeper appreciation of cinema as well as fellow beings.
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Movies on the Couch |
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24 Dec 2006
Dr A Mishra
Gurgaon |
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20 Sep 2006
Sheetal Dhandh
Ahmedabad |
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16 Aug 2006
Y Venugopal
Gurgaon
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12 Aug 2006
Y Venugopal
Gurgaon |
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04 Apr 2006
Dr A Shah
Palmdale |
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16 Jan 2006
Dr A Mishra
Gurgaon
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07 Aug 2004
Dr A Mishra
Gurgaon |
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01 Mar 2004
Prof A Nagpal
Delhi |
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17 Jan 2004
Sailesh Kapadia
Mumbai
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Movies analysed in the past include Lolita, Forrest Gump, Kramer vs Kramer, Agnisakshi, The Silence of the Lambs, Yes Boss, Fatal Attraction, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Fire, Maya Memsaab, Thakshak and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
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9 July 2007
Y Venugopal
Gurgaon |
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13 May 2007
Prof A Srivastav
Hyderabad |
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6 May 2007
Jhuma Basak
Kolkatta |
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5 May 2007
Jhuma Basak
Kolkatta |
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18 March 2007
Y Venugopal
Gurgaon |
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17 March 2007
Y Venugopal
Gurgaon |
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17 January 2007
Prof A Nagpal
Delhi |
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12 January 2007
Dr Apurva Shah
Palmdale |
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