Myth, Mind and the Screen: Understanding the Heroes of our Time

Description

Myth, Mind and the Screen is a systematic attempt to apply Jungian theory to the analysis of films (including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Silence of the Lambs and The Piano) as well as a variety of cultural icons and products such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and televised sport. Through these and other examples, John Izod shows how Jungian theory can bring new tools to film and media studies and new ways of understanding screen images and narratives. He also demonstrates how Jungian analysis can provide us with fresh insights into the psychological dimensions of contemporary mythology and the subjective experience of audiences. Perhaps most controversially, he argues that in the Western world cinema and television bear much of the responsibility for collective emotional mediation that in previous centuries was borne by organised religion. A valuable resource for students of film and media studies, cultural studies and psychoanalytic studies.

John Izod is Professor of Screen Analysis in the Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Stirling. He is the author of Reading the Screen (1984), Satellite, Cable and Beyond (with Alastair Hetherington, 1984), Hollywood and the Box Office (1988), The Films of Nicolas Roeg: Myth and Mind (1992), and An Introduction to Television Documentary: Confronting Reality (with Richard Kilborn, 1997).

'Izod's book is a wonderful addition to the slowly growing number of books relating Jungian psychology to film and modern culture ... His background in Jungian and psychoanalytic thought nicely informs a rich, creative summary of the field of psychoanalysis and film and his passion for film and modern media undergirds his analysis of his many excellent examples.' Analytical Psychology