The Couch and the Silver Screen: psychoanalytic reflections on European cinema

The Couch and the Silver Screen is a collection of original contributions which explore European cinema from psychoanalytic perspectives. Both classic and contemporary films are presented and analysed by a variety of authors, including leading cinema historians and theorists, psychoanalysts with a specific expertise in the interpretation of films, as well as the filmmakers themselves. This composite approach offers a fascinating insight into the world of cinema.

The Couch and the Silver Screen is illustrated with stills throughout and Andrea Sabbadini's introduction provides a theoretical and historical context for the current state of psychoanalytic studies of films. The book is organised into four clear sections - Set and Stage, Working Through Trauma, Horror Perspectives and Documenting Internal Worlds - which form the basis for engaging chapters including:

• easily readable and jargon-free film reviews.
• essays on specific subjects such as perspectives on the horror film genre and adolescent development.
• transcripts of live debates among film directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, actors, critics and psychoanalysts discussing films.

The cultural richness of the material presented, combined with the originality of multidisciplinary dialogues on European cinema, makes this book appealing not only to film buffs, but also to professionals, academics and students interested in the application of psychoanalytic ideas to the arts.

Andrea Sabbadini is a psychoanalyst in private practice in London and a lecturer at UCL. He is founding editor of Psychoanalysis and History and book review editor of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He chairs the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival and a series of film events at the ICA.