Psychocinema - (Theory Redux) by Helen Rollins

Book Synopsis

Psychocinema reexamines the connection between psychoanalysis and film, arguing for a return to the universalist core of both cinema and subjectivity. It traces the history of the influence of psychoanalysis on cinema and shows how the detour into ideologies of identity and difference eclipses the premise of the first and the emancipatory power of the second.

The book argues that psychoanalysis does not simply help us elucidate what we see on screen: rather, there is a fundamental relationship between the structure of psychoanalysis and that of cinema. Cinema acts upon the viewer like psychoanalysis upon the analysand and can expose them to the universal Lack inherent in their desire. This process undermines the unconscious logic of capitalism, which relies on a promise in fulfilment.

Rollins, a filmmaker, shows how reductive interpretations of psychoanalytic film theory have permeated film education and film practice and have affected the way films are made and watched, to the detriment of contemporary philosophy and politics. Psychocinema urges filmmakers, theorists and audiences to embrace the truly radical and emancipatory potential of cinema: its capacity to confront us with the universal Lack in our desire.

Review Quotes

'Helen Rollins's Psychocinema does something that is very rare: it aims at changing the very frame of how cinema and psychoanalysis are related. Rollins shows that viewing a film is in itself a psychoanalytic experience, the effect of film on the viewer is that of psychoanalysis on the analysand. Watching a film confronts us with the truth of our desire in all its inconsistencies, with the lack that sustains this desire. This ground-breaking thesis is demonstrated by dozens of illustrious examples, and they make the book not only insanely readable but also an important contribution to today's politics of emancipation. I didn't dare even to imagine that a book like Psychocinema could exist. But miracles happen, and Rollins's book is one of them.'
Slavoj Žižek

About the Author

Helen Rollins is an award-winning independent filmmaker and writer.