Visible Mind: Movies, modernity and the unconscious

Ulysses is for me the prototype of … modern man … (and) the man of the future as well, because he represents the type of the ‘trapped’ voyager. His journey was a voyage toward the centre, toward Ithaca, which is to say, toward himself. He was a fine navigator, but destiny – spoken here in terms of trials of initiation which he had to overcome – for

‘The movies are far more efficient than the theatre: they are less restricted, they are able to produce amazing symbols to show the collective unconscious, since their methods of presentation are so unlimited’

I see cinematography as the final and last medium left in this society, artistically speaking, that can be enjoyed by many people. Painting, sculpture etc., have limited audiences … People should make a big effort to keep it as an art medium. I like to paint on the screen. I like to create a mood and treat it as an art form, the last art form. I ha

‘Consciousness is full of holes, and we use stories to hide them from ourselves’.

In film, as in no other medium, we can actually see the behavior of the archetype; in life, we know her far more indirectly, as moods, impulses, symptoms, and as a shape-shifting personage in our dreams … In film, we can see the anima figure over time, in a more or less stable guise, at her strange task of mediating the fate of a protagonist. (Beeb

Perhaps transformation into art is one way of dealing with the overstimulation of modern life. Art binds chaotic impressions into form … Perhaps film emerged when it did because it was just the therapy people needed to bind into manageable form the chaos of modern overstimulation.

What interested you most about the cinema?

‘Without balance you transgress your limits without noticing

One analyst told me of a client who grew up in a family where no one was allowed to watch anything except cartoons. It was as if the whole family had not grown up. When she was depressed, the client watched cartoons all day. She eventually confessed how she would be terrified to watch a romantic comedy; the idea of going to the video store and watc

Beebe, J. and Apperson, V. (2008) The Presence of the Feminine in Film. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.