Tales from the crypt: applying Jungian concepts to grief narratives in film
Holmwood, Mark (2021) Tales from the crypt: applying Jungian concepts to grief narratives in film. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London/University for the Creative Arts.
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In its simplest form, this thesis is about cinematic representations of grief. However, it approaches and expands this subject area using a hybrid of psychoanalytic and Jungian concepts focusing on a specific type of grief: the aftermath of a traumatic bereavement. I use films and their narratives as case studies where I outline protagonists’ crypts using Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok’s theory of the intrapsychic tomb. The way out of this trapped state is then investigated using the psychological framework of Carl Gustav Jung, which suggests that the psyche aims for an equilibrium, meaning a state of relief.
After acknowledging the legacy of psychoanalytically fuelled film theory which grew with the works of Lacan, Metz, Baudry, Mulvey, and Miller, and explaining the reasons why I follow in the footsteps of Braswell, Fox, and Edwards, the investigation then pairs clinical theory with Jungian concepts and analyses seven films which not only depict traumatised states but also portray different paths out of these states. First, I use grief theory to explore the psychological problem, as my anchoring topic is traumatic loss. Second, I apply specific Jungian concepts such as shadow, symbols, archetypes, enantiodromia, amplification, and dreams to expand, explain, and illuminate particular narratives with their connections to these losses. By doing so, this thesis provides a combination of replicatory and incremental contribution to knowledge. Through using films as case studies, these new and creative applications of several Jungian concepts to cinematic narratives contribute to grief theory, film studies, psychoanalysis, and Jungian studies in a multi-layered, interconnected, and transdisciplinary way.
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