The Mechanism of Self in Cinema: Suffering and Psychoanalysis

(Hardback)

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Identity, Suffering and Psychoanalysis in Cinema explores psychological disorder as common to the human condition using a unique three-angled approach: psychoanalysis recognises the inherent suffering encountered by each subject due to developmental phases; psychology applies specific categorisation to how this suffering manifests; cinema depicts suffering through a combination of video and aural elements. Functioning as a culturally reflexive medium, the six feature films analysed, including Black Swan (2010) and The Machinist (2004), represent some of the most common psychological disorders and lived experiences of the contemporary era. This book enters unchartered terrain in cinema scholarship by combining clinical psychologys Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Five (DSM-V) to organise and diagnose each character, and psychoanalysis to track the origin, mechanism and affect of the psychological disorder within the narrative trajectory of each film. Lacans theories on the infantile mirror phase, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic, ieks theories on the Real, the big Other and the Event, and Kristevas theories on abjection and melancholia work in combination with the DSMs classification of symptoms to interpret six contemporary pieces of cinema. By taking into consideration that origin, mechanism, affect and symptomatology are part of an interconnected group, this book explores psychological disorder as part of the human condition, something which contributes to and informs personal identity. More specifically, this research refutes the notion that psychological disorder and psychological health exist as a binary, instead recognising that what has traditionally been pathologised, may instead be viewed as variations on human identity.

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The Mechanism of Self is unique and vital addition to the canon of film analysis, bringing together psychoanalysis and psychology in order to explore, in exciting new ways, the manner with which cinema can represent our deepest struggles and darkest experiences. An authoritative, and highly readable, exploration of cinema and suffering. * Scott Wilson, Senior Lecturer of Critical Studies, Massey University, New Zealand *

Author Bio

Laura Stephenson is Senior Lecturer in Film, in the School of Film & Television, University of South Wales, United Kingdom. In her role on the BA (Honours) Film degree she brings together the oft-divided worlds of screen theory and practice. Her research interests are driven by the notion that suffering is an integral aspect of the lived-experience, with much of her philosophical work exploring identity, trauma and the human condition through cinema and television texts. She aims to continue researching and publishing in the growing academic field of medical humanities.