Greenberg, Harvey Roy. “Reel Significations: An Anatomy of Psychoanalytic Film Criticism.” Screen Memories : Hollywood Cinema on the Psychoanalytic Couch. New York: Columbia UP 1993. 13-37.

 

Greenberg's first chapter of Screen Memories begins with a discussion of the inherent relationship between psychoanalysis and the visual arts before turning to Freud's distrust and disinterest in film. Greenberg suggests that Freud's lack of interest in cinema is part of a larger avoidance of the "entire jangling paraphernalia of twentieth-century life" which includes film as well as radios, telephones, and cars (19). He also makes an intriguing connection between Freud's jaw cancer and is silence on the subject of cinema. He mentions Freud's troubled relationships with his desciples including, Karl Abraham, with whom he corresponded regarding Pabst's Secrets of the Soul. Abraham died before Secrets was released, and he and Freud never quite reconciled over their disagreement about the film. The chapter then turns to the development of psychoanalytic film criticism in the twentieth-century with an outline of the academic field. He also sketches out the appearance of therapist characters in film throughout the twentieth-century, drawing on I. Schneider's "The Theory and Practice of Movie Psychiatry," which points to "the appearance of three distinct therapeutic 'types' at the beginning of the silent era--Dr. Dippy, Dr. Evil, and Dr. Wonderful. . . [which are]regularly enacted to this day" in film (35). Dr. Orth of Secrets, the first film therapist, fits the Dr. Wonderful type. Greenberg concludes with a look toward the future of psychoanalytic film criticism, calling for a deeper and more varied understanding and use of psychoanalytic theory in its application to film.

Introduces the psychoanalytic approach to cinema. Uses movie examples such as 'Psycho' and 'Casablanca' to explore how particular story elements appeal to audiences. Also looks at the psychology of the characters in these movies.