Movies and the Modern Psyche

By looking at the interactions between cinema and psychology Packer offers readers clear and basic insights into some of the most fundamental reasons why film is such an important influence upon our lives today. Movies and the Modern Psyche first describes the basic concepts of psychoanalysis experimental psychology behavioral conditioning and hypnosis which have all played major roles in the histories of both film and psychiatry. It then goes on to discuss the recent rise in film therapy drug treatments treatment for drug abuse and the closing of asylums to show how shifts in treatment techniques theories and settings are foreshadowed and fossilized by film.Psychology and cinema are kindred cousins born at the same time and developing together so that each influences the other. From the mind-controlling villains that occupy early horror films and Cold War thrillers (like Caligari Mabuse and The Ipcress File) to the asylums that house numberless political allegories and personal dramas (in Shock Corridor Spellbound One Flew over the Cuckoo''s Nest and Girl Interrupted) to the drugs phobias and disorders that pervade so many of our favorite films (including as a small sample Vertigo Night of the Hunter Psycho Rainman Fight Club Requiem for a Dream and Batman Begins) there is no escaping either psychology in the movies or the movies in psychology. By looking at the interactions between cinema and psychology this book offers readers clear and basic insights into some of the most fundamental reasons why film is such an important influence upon our lives today.Movies and the Modern Psyche first describes the basic concepts of psychoanalysis experimental psychology behavioral conditioning and hypnosis which have all played major roles in the histories of both film and psychiatry. It then goes on to discuss the recent rise in film therapy drug treatments treatment for drug abuse and the closing of asylums to show how shifts in treatment techniques theories and settings are foreshadowed and fossilized by film.