Screen Memories: Hollywood Cinema on the Psychoanalytic Couch

by Harvey Greenberg

Overview

Screen Memories delves into the psychological features of mainstream movies from Casablanca to Working Girl. While most psychoanalytic film criticism is highly theoretical, Dr. Greenberg, a practicing clinician, writes in an entertaining, informative style that will appeal to fans and scholars alike.

Greenberg begins with an overview of the history and methods of psychoanalytic film criticism. He then focuses upon character, motivation, and conflict in famous examples of detective, war, science-fiction, horror, and cult cinema. He also addresses the enduring emotional appeal of these genres to spectators from one generation to the next.

Greenberg then fuses psychoanalysis and cultural criticism. He probes a type of big, bad picture which emerged in Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s, embracing nearly every genre, with a particular focus on the hero's pathological narcissism in such films as Rambo and Top Gun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231072878
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/22/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	277
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.66(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Harvey Roy Greenberg, M.D. is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice. He is also Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he teaches adolescent psychiatry and medical humanities.

Editorial Reviews

Not only does it clear away the fog from much deliberately opaque writing on the subject, but, like the rest of this playfully deep book look at the movies, it's fun to read.

Washington Post Book World

Delves into the psychological aspects of mainstream American movies--from Casablanca to Working Girl--in a candid, entertaining way. Beginning with a basic overview of psychoanalytic film criticism, the author redirects his focus to issues of character, motivation, and conflict in the various film genre. Interesting reading for the film buff with a psychology background. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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