Subconscious Lens of Cinema: Psychoanalitic Film Theory 101

Cover: Ingmar Bergman-Persona (1966). Film Hafızası. [1]

Sociologists often mention stories, folklore, legends and myths to analyze the society and its culture, values and structure as they understand the intertwined relationship between these cultural outputs and people’s psychology. However, with the emergence of cinema in the 19th century, a new type of cultural output was found. It mostly consisted of motional images -similar to how our sub-conscious works: with images- .

At the start, to understand the psychoanalytic film theory better, we shall discuss psychoanalysis. This term was invented by Freud and his followers in 1890s. It refers to a set of theories that try to explain the human psyche. Freud was the first person ever to discover the subconscious level of the human psyche, he and his followers developed theories about how the conscious and the subconscious interact with each other, how it can affect our day-to-day lives in a deep and kind of hidden way. In addition, how the subconscious communicates with our conscious with the dreams we have. Most of the images, shapes, patterns and storylines are the symbols of the subconscious issues that are connected with each other. It is believed that the subconscious works with images and pictures which is one of the reasons why it is linked to cinema.

At the end of the 19th century, the idea of how cinema is most likely a reflection of the human subconscious and vice versa came up. These two new concepts, psychology and cinema, have been associated with each other since then. Later, the academic studies started to be conducted. The terminology of the researches was named as psychoanalytic film theory. This theory is based on other theories such as Marxist film theory, apparatus theory and critical theory. The first wave of these studies appeared more and some directors used these theories in their movies which date back to 1960s and 1970s. The second wave was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. In this article, we are aiming to take a brief look at how this theory was developed and how it was defined by researchers.

In 1916, German psychologist Hugo Münsterberg wrote a book called Photoplay studying the psychological aspect of the films. It is considered as one of the first and most important studies about this film theory. The main idea of the book that was being discussed is that cinema reflects our subconscious which is mentioned as mechanisms of the mind. The screenplay is a display of the deepest parts of our minds. Cinema is also much more complex when it is compared with other forms of cultural outputs in terms of the reflection of our subconscious minds since the images create motions.

Moreover, André Breton who was a French writer and the founder of the surrealism movement stated that cinema could be an effective medium with which we associate our subconscious. The techniques that were utilized in cinema including superimposition and slow-motion were seen as replicas of our dreams.

In addition to them, Richard Allen discussed the reason why psychoanalysis is linked to the cinema and said: “Cinema seems to display an essential similarity with irrationality that psychoanalysis seeks ways to explain. This kinship between cinema and irrationality is suggested by two distinct aspects of cinema: the distinctive visual properties of the medium and the character, and quality of mass cultural narratives. Here, the importance of the audience is discussed as well through the visual properties that are created by cinema. The effects of mass culture are also reflected by cinema as films are made to be consumed by people and they are made and directed by the individuals who are a part of this culture. However, in psychoanalysis terms, the second kinship is explained to be a matter of significance for human understanding about the augmentation and perception of cinema. It emphasizes what cinema allows us to see, and how this affects our self-understanding.” (Allen, 2004).

As a conclusion, the filmmakers, directors, screenwriters and the spectators have their own perception about films. The effects of these motion pictures on the spectators are most likely deeper because of the developed cognitive skills of people. The spectators are able to get to know themselves as ‘the coherent ego’ through the screen and lenses of the camera. Later, this phenomenon was explained as the ‘gaze’ by Christian Metz and Laura Mulvey. The viewers identify themselves via camera viewpoint. With the ‘gaze’, the viewers are able to recognize themselves through characters, and this affects their subconscious perceptions.

 

 

 

Resources

• Allen, R. (2004). A Companion to Film Theory (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470998410.ch8
• Psychoanalytic film theory (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 6, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalytic_film_theory
• Thompson, K. (1980). Folklore and Sociology. The Sociological Review, 28(2), 249–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.1980.tb00365.x
• Münsterberg, H., & Langdale, A. (2001). Hugo Munsterberg on Film: The Photoplay: A Psychological Study and Other Writings (1st ed.). Routledge.
• Psychological film theory (2015, August 6). Film Theory. https://www.filmtheory.org/psychological-film-theory/

Image Resources

1. Ingmar Bergman-persona (2013). [Photograph]. Film Hafızası. https://filmhafizasi.com/bergmanin-yuzleri-persona/
2. Halberstadt, M. (1921). Photographic portrait of Sigmund Freud [Photograph]. Wikipedia. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud#/media/Dosya:Sigmund_Freud,_by_Max_Halberstadt_(cropped).jpg
3. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. (2015, November). Hugo Münsterberg [Photograph]. Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Hugo-Muensterberg-Source-Schlesinger-Library-Radcliffe-Institute-Harvard-University_fig1_285206474
4. Black Swan (n.d.). [Movie frame]. IMDB. (2010). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/