In this special audio documentary episode of The Cinematologists Podcast, we draw upon the fascinating research in an AHRC funded project Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the long 1960s. Exploring the complex interrelations between cinema and the psy-sciences during a unique period of material collaboration, we cover the dimensions of mutual influence between filmmakers and psychiatric professions in a number of contexts - the depiction of psychological themes in case history adaptations, relationships between doctors and patients, changing ideas around causes and treatments of conditions, the context of censorship, and the very social perception of mental illness. We also focuses on the rationale for collaborations between filmmakers and psy-professionals, their ideological and moral parameters, and the formal characteristics of films influenced by psychiatry in various ways.
The episode, written, narrated and edit by Dario and featuring contributions from research investigators Dr Tim Snelson of the University of East Anglia and Dr William R. Macauley of the University of Manchester, weaves together the core arguments and findings from the project with indicative clips from a range of films that were the focus of enquiry.
After the main edit, Dario discusses with Neil the making of the podcast, thinking through both the technical elements of editing this type of podcast and the decision-making process when adapting such in-depth research to the audio form.
Dr. Tim Snelson is an associate professor in media history at the University of East Anglia (UK). His research addressing the relationship between media and social history has been published in journals including Media History, History of Human Sciences, Cultural Studies and The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. He has explored wartime cycles of psychological horror and crime films in a book titled Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and the Home Front (Rutgers University Press, 2015).
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8282-2432
Dr. William R. Macauley is a lecturer at the University of Manchester and senior research associate at the Science Museum, London. He has an academic background and extensive research experience in psychology and the history of science, technology, and medicine. His work has been published in scholarly books and journals including History of the Human Sciences, Journal of British Cinema and Television, History of Technology, and the Journal of Sonic Studies.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1748-9610
Book to accompany the research project:
Tim Snelson , William R. Macauley and David A. Kirby, Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s (forthcoming Edinburgh University Press, 2024).
Bibliography
Baudry, Jean-Louis, and Alan Williams. “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus.” Film Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2, 1974, pp. 39–47.
Laing, R.D. 1960. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. (2010 edition) Penguin Modern Classics.
Laing, R.D. 1970. Sanity, Madness and the Family: Families of Schizophrenics. Penguin Books Ltd
Metz, Christian, and Alfred Guzzetti. “The Fiction Film and Its Spectator: A Metapsychological Study.” New Literary History, vol. 8, no. 1, 1976, pp. 75–105.
Mulvey, Laura. 1975. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 6-18
Filmography
Secrets of a Soul (1926, G. W. Pabst)
Calling Dr Death (1943, Reginald Le Borg)
Shock (1946, Alfred L. Werker)
Dark Mirror (1946, Robert Siodmak)
Possessed (1947, Curtis Bernhardt)
The Snake Pit (1948, Anatole Litvak)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957, Nunnally Johnson)
Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Caretakers (1963, Hal Bartlett)
The Collector (1965, William Wyler)
Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski)
In Two Minds (TV, 1967, Ken Loach)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, Miloš Foreman)
Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)
Good Will Hunting (1997, Gus Van Sant)
Girl, Interrupted (1999, James Mangold)
Joker (2019, Todd Philips)
Addition music via Artlist.io
A.J. Nutter - Winds of Design
Alon Peretz - While the Town Was Sleeping
Norvik - Waterbed
You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow. Or visit www.cinematologists.com
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Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (w/ director Julien Temple)
A Ghost Story
London Film Festival 2018 w/Filmmaker and Critic Marbelle
The Piano (w/ Ellen Cheshire)
American Animals director Bart Layton
Film-Philosophy Conference 2018
Steve McQueen
Lek and the Dogs (w/ Dir. Andew Kötting)
Unsocial Audiences
The Islands and the Whales (W/ dir. Mike Day)
Juice (w/ film critic & podcaster Leslie Pitt)
Claire Denis (with Dr. Felicity Gee)
Right Now Film Festival / Brexitannia (+filmmaker Daisy Asquith)
In a Lonely Place (w/ Prof. Julie Grossman)
Dark River (with Clio Barnard and Andrew Kötting)
Paul Thomas Anderson
Contemporary Film Criticism
Post-Weinstein (plus an interview with Dr. Tamsyn Dent.)
La Notte (featuring film critic Robert Koehler)
(Bonus) Alex Barrett & London Symphony
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