Rendering Unconscious episode 316.
Helen Rollins is here to talk about her new book Psychocinema (Polity Books, 2024). Follow her at Instagram | Facebook. Follow Polity on Instagram | X.
Psychocinema reexamines the connection between psychoanalysis and film, arguing for a return to the universalist core of both cinema and subjectivity. It traces the history of the influence of psychoanalysis on cinema and shows how the detour into ideologies of identity and difference eclipses the premise of the first and the emancipatory power of the second.
The book argues that psychoanalysis does not simply help us elucidate what we see on screen: rather, there is a fundamental relationship between the structure of psychoanalysis and that of cinema. Cinema acts upon the viewer like psychoanalysis upon the analysand and can expose them to the universal Lack inherent in their desire. This process undermines the unconscious logic of capitalism, which relies on a promise in fulfilment.
Rollins, a filmmaker, shows how reductive interpretations of psychoanalytic film theory have permeated film education and film practice and have affected the way films are made and watched, to the detriment of contemporary philosophy and politics. Psychocinema urges filmmakers, theorists and audiences to embrace the truly radical and emancipatory potential of cinema: its capacity to confront us with the universal Lack in our desire.
If you enjoy psychoanalysis & cinema:
Join Dr. Vanessa Sinclair for The Magical Films of Iconic Director Tim Burton, beginning December 1 online via Morbid Anatomy Museum.
Projections: Death Scenes in Cinema with Mary Wild, Begins January 12, 5-Week Class Taught Online via Zoom, Sundays, January 12 – February 9, 2025, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EST (NYC Time).
PROJECTIONS: Feminine Jouissance in Horror Cinema, 13 February, 2025, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (London Time), online via Freud Museum London.
Morbid Anatomy now offers On-Demand classes. Our courses are available there!
On-Demand · The Magic of Occult Cinema with Carl Abrahamsson
Watch this discussion at YouTube:
Be sure to check out this previous episode:
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Rendering Unconscious Podcast received the 2023 Gradiva Award for Digital Media from the National Association for the Advancement for Psychoanalysis (NAAP).
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Rendering Unconscious podcast is hosted by Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, a psychoanalyst based in Sweden who works remotely with people all over the world. Follow at Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
Dr. Sinclair is the author of Things Happen (Trapart Books, 2024), The Pathways of the Heart (Trapart Books, 2021), Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation (Routledge, 2021) and Switching Mirrors (Trapart Books, 2016).
Dr. Sinclair is the editor of Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives vols. 1 & 2 (Trapart Books, 2024) and Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond (Routledge, 2023).
She co-edited the books The Queerness of Psychoanalysis: From Freud and Lacan to Laplanche and Beyond (Routledge, 2025) with Elisabeth Punzi and Myriam Sauer, Outsider Inpatient: Reflections on Art as Therapy (Trapart Books, 2021) with Elisabeth Punzi, On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives (Routledge, 2019) with Manya Steinkoler, and The Fenris Wolf, vol 9 (Trapart Books, 2017) and The Fenris Wolf, vol 11 (Trapart Books, 2022) co-edited with Carl Abrahamsson.
Many thanks to Carl Abrahamsson, who created the intro and outro music for Rendering Unconscious podcast. Follow him at: Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Substack
The song at the end of the episode is “Playthings” from the album Ready For Business by Vanessa Sinclair and Pete Murphy. Available at Pete Murphy’s Bandcamp Page.
Our music is also available at Spotify and other streaming services.
Image: book cover
