The course will present basic psychoanalytic concepts and will critically explore their representation in cinema. We will become acquainted with the terms ‘conscious mind’ and ‘unconscious mind’, through looking at cinematic characters who express their deepest desires and motivations. We will discover complex inner structures such as the Id, the Ego and the Super Ego, using characters who deal with conflicts between untamed urges and rigid conscience. We will meet the term ‘object relations’ through the importance of early childhood in understanding the behavior of adult characters, as well as through experiences of love and separation. Further on into the semester, we will get to know the concept ‘transitional space’ and discuss the possibility that cinema is in fact a transitory area between dream and reality. We will discuss ‘the true self’ and the idea that creation is a self-discovery journey, therefore a therapeutic process. Throughout the course, we will raise questions concerning the meeting of psychoanalysis and cinema as two forms of story-telling, and explore the ways the inner worlds of the creator and the viewer, the psychoanalyst and the patient, unfold in front of the other.

The course will include mutual exploration of a selection of cinematic works, and will be based on active, creative and free discussion between participants. The course will end with a final written assignment.