Bringing Life to Psychology: Movies as Mirrors

Bringing Life to Psychology by Nancy Dudley and Monica Baehr

Movies as Mirrors: Is the purpose of movies simply to entertain and preoccupy our time with passive viewing? The authors of this book suggest that there is much more happening in our unconscious mind. As university instructors, they developed strategies for using films to broaden their students’ perspectives on the human journey by sharing and writing about movie characters and their stories. As a guide, the authors provided different theories on the human condition as frameworks for their assessments of the film and its personal impact on them.

With these summaries of such a broad number of perspectives on the human condition, it is hoped that the reader, too, will perceive psychology as well as movies in a different light. The depth and very personal responses of the students, both graduate and undergraduate, were so full of meaning for the authors that they inspired this book.

＂Watching films helps me to apply the theories we learn to real life as opposed to memorizing.＂ (Student)

After reading Bringing Life to Psychology: Movies as Mirrors, you may never view movies the same way again.

Dr. Nancy Dudley is a Senior Instructor Emerita, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Her background includes nursing, social work, and educational psychology, areas in which she has held various positions over the last 60 years, both in practice and in university teaching.

Dr. Monica Baehr spent more than 40 years as a professional psychologist, along the way receiving her doctorate in Applied Psychology at the University of Calgary. She started in clinical psychology and gradually shifted to university teaching, including more than thirty years at Mount Royal University, Calgary.