Cinema and Psyche in Analytical Psychology: Individuation as a Pathway to Love

Peering into the unconscious through cinema can give audiences an uncanny feeling about what lives in the beyond, something alien to consciousness. This book creates psychological interpretations of films that lend themselves to the depths, and investigates the personal and cultural appeal of cinema as a powerful art form.

The selected films examined in this book circle around the process of individuation, focussing on different aspects of intellectual and emotional life from a Jungian lens. The first group of movies centres on three films, following plotlines that extend beyond the norms of routine drama, delving into alien territory. The second group presents three more films that, by comparison with the first, can be seen as typical dramas that focus on motifs of relationships. In the final chapter, the authors reflect on their own individuation journeys and life experiences that have informed the productive nature of their work together.

This book will be of interest for therapists, students, and academics working in film studies, looking to engage in psychological studies in depth, as well as film goers who want to explore their relationship to the screen.

Joanna Dovalis, Ph.D., is a depth psychotherapist and Jungian Analyst with a professional private practice for over thirty years in Southern California. In addition to numerous articles and chapters in professional journals and books, she was the co-author of Cinema as Therapy: Grief and transformational film (Routledge in 2015) with her writing partner John Izod.

John Izod, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Screen Analysis at the University of Stirling. He has published several books including Screen, Culture, Psyche: A Post-Jungian Approach to Working with the Audience (Routledge 2006) and Cinema as Therapy: Grief and transformational film (Routledge 2015) with his co-author Joanna Dovalis