Psychoanalytical Theory

What is it?

Psychoanalytic film theory is a school of academic thought that evokes the concepts of psychoanalysts Jacques Lacan, and to a lesser extent, Sigmund Freud. The theory itself is tied closely to the Critical Theory (stresses the reflective assessments and critique of society and culture by applying knowledge from the social sciences/humanities), Marxist Film Theory (a wider way to refer to any power relationships or structures within a moving image text) and Apparatus Theory (derived in part from Marxist Film Theory, it maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological and because the films are created to represent reality).

The theory is separated into two waves. The First occured in the 1960s/70s, and the second became popular in the 1980s/90s.

 

Precursors

André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement, saw film as a means of engaging the unconscious. This was because films had the ablity to tell a story using techniques such as superimposition, and slow motion, and as a result film was seen as a way of mimicking dreams. Therefore, the application of psychonanalysis to cinema concentrated on unmasking latent meanings behind screen images, thus film was later regarded as a represenatation of fantasy.

 

First Wave

In the early 1970s, Cristian Metz and Laura Mulvey separately explored aspects of the "gaze". Much of their work was influenced by that of Lacan's ideas. Metz stressed the viewers identification with the cameras vision - an identification largely "constructed" by the film itself. Whereas, Mulvey posited the idea of the fetish aspects of (especially) the male viewer's regard for the onscreen female body. The audience may be offered particular identifications from which to watch. Thus, the theory stresses the subject's longing for a completemess which the film may appaear to offer through idfentification with an image. This links back to the idea that dreams offer a sense of escapism from real life, a distraction from the subjects own reality.

 

Second Wave

Like the first, the second wave of psychoanalytic film theory also had its basis in Lacan's thought, though with a significantly different emphasis. This second wave of psychoanalytic film theory is associated with the critisim of Jacqueline Rose - emphasising the viewers search for the missing object of desire. Therefore, it is clear to see how this idea has evolved from that of the "gaze". Elizabeth Cowie states "the pleasure of fantasy lies in the setting out, not in the having of the objects". 

Essentially, this manifestation of psychoanalytical film theory shifted the focus from cinema's ideological work to the relationship between cinema and a trauma that disrupts the functioning of ideology. This means that the theory shifted from the axis of the symbolic order and the imaginary, to that of the symbolic order and the real. This does not mean to say that theorists no longer discuss cinema's relationship to ideology, it just means that they have ceased to look for ideology in the cinematic apparatus itself and begun to look for it in filmic structure.

 

Freud and Horror Film

“Analysis of film content assumes two levels of meaning, one of which is manifest and one of which is hidden. The last carries the “real” meaning for the mass audience. This audience is presumed to intuit or in some manner become aware of the motifs in the film which satisfy and express its hidden needs. This seems to mean that the “unconscious” intuitions of the makers of films communicate to the “unconscious” minds of the mass audience” (Fearing, 1948, p. 173 ).

The quote above demostrates the link between film and Freudian influence of the unconcious. Horror films serve to highlight unconsious fears within it's audience, and this has been noted throughout the History of Horror film - with the most successul ones relfecting the unconcious fears of society at that time. Thus, these "hidden" themes are put into the film as a part of subliminal messaging, through symbols that can be traslated into certain connontations.

In relation to Freud, much of his early work involved studying patients with hysterical symptoms - and then trying to discover how these symptoms and cognitions manifested themeselves. Hysteria (along with mental illness) was a popular theme depicted in early horror films to arouse fear of mental illness. Additionally, his notion of the unconcious is one of the most prevalent ideologies expressed in horror - the idea of secret desires or urges that lay hiddn to us that drive our motivations. It is essentially the fear of what we are really capable of, and how much natural control we have over that capability. 

Similarly, repression is another theme commonly found in the horror genre. This is when the indivdual locks traumatic memories inside, and they can be later be resurfaced through use of triggers or stimuli. Perhaps one of the most notable horror films that played with this idea of mental illness and repression was that of Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. Freud saw mental illness as a result of a disruption in the infantile sexual development at some point in the psychosexual stages. Thus, trauma experience in childhood later affect the adult - causing the mental illness. This relates to the second wave of the theory with regards to the manifestation of psychoanalytical film theory shifting from the focus of  cinema's ideological work to the relationship between cinema and a trauma that disrupts the functioning of ideology. Consequently, in horror, neurotic behaviour is prelevant in the evil or villan, and a heightened sexual awareness in the heroin - Freud would argue here that it is a reuslt of repressed sexual desire (partiularly notable in the early horror Nosferatu).

“Psychoanalysis and film were both born in 1895″ (Cocks, 2003, p. 35)

As prevously noted in my post on History of Horror some of the first horror films were produced in the 1920s. Many of theses were influenced by the German Expressionist Movement, during WWI, and many German film makers immigrated to Hollywood, resulting in a profound effect on the development of American horror films. This was because they began to implement the exaggerate angles, scenery and the juxtaposition of light and dark to give films a deeper psychological meaning and impact on the audience. This German Expressionism ideology was heavily influenced by Freud and all of his psychoanalytic theories, therfore meaning that the majority of early horror was shaped significantly by his work.

How does this influence my work?

There is no doubt that my film will not have such an intense deeper meaning to extent of which is explained above, however, by researching psychological horror and all its conventions, it is easy to seen how much the psychoanalytic theory does actually influence what I have made. This is because many of the ideas I have explored and played with link back to what theorists have posited.

Firstly, my film can be related all the way back to André Breton and the idea of the Surralist movement. This is because it states films are dream/fantasy like, and that is part of what I was trying to achieve with my film. I wanted there to be questioning about where the line between reality and fantasy is placed. I have attempted to show this through the use of distortion and certain apsects that make the audience wonder what parts of the film are real. 

I can also apply certain aspects of both Metz and Mulvey's work in the first wave of psychoanalytical theory. This is because they are tied with the idea of escapism, but still have a realism about them too - thus my film is set in an atmosphere that is believable, but still offers a distraction. This consequently explains why I hope my film will be successful because it offers something of which the audience can idenitfy with. Subsequently, this relates to the subject's longing for a completemess which the film may appaear to offer through identification with an image. Furthermore, due to the realistic element of my film, it links back to the idea of the second wave of the pyschoanalytical theory in the sense of the theory shifting from the axis of the symbolic order and the imaginary, to that of the symbolic order and the real.

In terms of Freud and his ideas, I think my film relates to them, and I suppose this was partly by accident and party on purpose. I had always wanted my character to be the protagonist, and their own mind being the antagonist, as I believed that the idea of how our mind can play tricks on us something that could potentially be terrifying. Thus, as I explored Freud's work further, and his arguments on secret desires or urges that lay hiddn to us that drive our motivations, it became clear that my film was very much along those lines. This is because my main plot for my film was to make it so the audience questioned the full potential of what we can do, whether it be conciously or unconciously - and so relating to his work of fearing what we are really capable of, and the control over that. 

Subsequently, it is clear to see how much the psychoanalytic film theory has influenced horror, and the psychological horror films within it. This is because many of the conventions that are now typically seen in the films stemmed from that of theorists arguments and psychologists deeper understanding of the mind.