A Jungian Perspective on the Therapist-Patient Relationship in Film: Cinema as Our Therapist

by Ruth Netzer

Within this book, Ruth Netzer explores the archetypal components of therapist-patient relations in cinema from the perspective of Jungian archetypal symbolism, and within the context of myth and ritual.

Film is a medium that is attracted to the extremes of this specific relationship, depicting the collapse of the accepted boundaries of therapy; though on the other hand, cinema also loves the fantasy of therapy as intimacy. Through the medium of film, and employing examples from over 45 well-known films, the author analyzes the successes and failures of therapists within film, and reviews the concepts of transference and counter-transference and their therapeutic and redemptive powers, in contrast to their potential for destruction and exploitation within the context of a patient-therapist relationship.

This book will be a fascinating read for Jungian analysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists with an interest in the link between cinema and therapy, as well as filmmakers and students and teachers of film studies.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1032608374
• ISBN13: 9781032608372
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"