Embodied female experience through the lens of imagination

Abstract: In 1971, I made a film entitled Self Portrait of a Nude Model Turned Cinematographer in which I explore the objectifying ‘male’ gaze on my body in contrast to the subjective lived experience of my body. The film was a radical challenge to the gaze that objectifies woman – and thus imprisons her – which had hitherto dominated narrative cinema. Since the objectification of women has largely excluded us from the privileged phallogocentric discourses, in this paper I hope to bring into the psychoanalytic dialogue a woman's lived experience. I will approach this by exploring how remembering this film has become a personally transformative experience as I look back on it through the lens of postmodern and feminist discourses that have emerged since it was made. In addition, I will explore how this process of imaginatively looking back on an artistic creation to generate new discourses in the present is similar to the transformative process of analysis. Lastly, I will present a clinical example, where my embodied countertransference response to a patient's subjection to the objectifying male gaze opens space for a new discourse about her body to emerge.     

Jung in Africa: the historical record

Blake Burleson's ninety-minute presentation was part one of 'A Passage to Africa' moderated by John Beebe. Eight individual filmed sequences from home movies taken by Helton Godwin Baynes during Jung's 1925 expedition to East Africa were shown. In addition to placing these clips in their historical, geographic, and cultural context, Burleson introduced the following cultural complexes revealed in the film and in travelling companion Ruth Bailey's commentary on the film: romantic primitivism, 'going black', self-conscious élite, 'furor Africanus', the 'black man's burden', racial inferiority, and the 'curse of Ham'.     

“Girls Can’t Play Ball”: Feminist Counseling Using A League of Their Own

This commentary reviews A League of Their Own, a film that provides a fictional account of the lives of women who played in the first year of the All-American Girls’ Baseball League. Set during World War II-era America, the film offers a look into the gendered lives of women seeking careers in traditionally masculine fields. The authors review the movie from a feminist media lens, with specific emphasis on how the two main characters, Dottie and Kit, ascribe to and defy gender stereotypes and gain voice and agency. Specific implications are pulled from the analysis to be used in the context of counseling women, including empowerment of female clients and establishing career identity.     

The chemical potential and the work function of a metal film on a dielectric substrate

The chemical potential and the work function of an aluminium metal film which is in the vacuum (1) and on a dielectric substrate (2) are obtained using the model of non-interacting electrons confined by an asymmetric rectangular potential well. For the first time, these two characteristics are calculated with correct taking into account the electroneutrality condition. As a result, the values of the chemical potential and the work function tend to their bulk values upon increasing the film thickness. The presence of a dielectric substrate leads to a small shift in the values of these characteristics.     

Representing Father–Son Relationships among African-American Muslim Men in Film and Television

African-American Muslims are well-known for their prison reform ministries and initiatives aimed at assisting disenfranchised men and women in inner city communities. In media discourse, the redemption narratives of young African-American Muslim men in these environments have often been stimulated by African-American Muslim leaders who function as highly influential fatherly figures that usually stress an importance of fatherhood in ameliorating juvenile delinquency and hopelessness. While fatherhood is a cherished institution among Muslim families, this analysis focuses on depictions of father-son relationships among African-American Muslim men in film and television. This study examines relationships between Muslim sons and non-Muslim fathers, Muslim fathers and non-Muslim sons, and fathers and sons who both embrace Islam throughout these visual narratives. In exploring these relationships, the article examines the impact of African-American Muslim fathers on their sons’ faith and spiritual development, negotiation of masculinity, management of racism, confrontation of Islamophobia, and maintenance of discipline, social mobility, and life skills.     

'Oh Rose, thou art sick!' Anti-individuation forces in the film American Beauty

The film American Beauty is used as a vehicle to explore difficulties in the individuation process, to look at a particular aspect of couple relationships in which mourning is avoided, and to make a general comment about the relationship between film and psychological experience. The thesis of the paper is that the individuation process is both an intra-psychic experience and an inter-psychic one which relies on relationships with external figures to enable development. The adult couple relationship is taken as one of the key areas of emotional life for the individuation process and as an area that can best show up false starts, successes, or even retreats in psychological development. Using the poetry of William Blake and the work of Michael Fordham, I show a process of anti-individuation going on in the relationship between the characters of Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film.     

“Let's Get Into Character”: A Narrative/Constructionist Psychology of Conversion in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction

This paper engages the psychology of conversion through the 1994 prizewinning film Pulp Fiction, which features a divine intervention that sparks the conversion of a Los Angeles hit man. Given that film reveals the popular state of mind, this portrayal in Pulp Fiction suggests that a new form of conversion may be evolving in popular culture: a postmodern, narrative/constructionist account of conversion that could be a significant shift from previous psychological interpretations of the phenomenon.     

Using Popular Film to Teach Multicultural Counseling: A Constructivist Approach

The use of popular film as an experiential teaching tool in multicultural counselor education has been well documented. However, existing research has been limited. The purpose of this study is to implement a unique pedagogic intervention using popular films and to study how counseling students experience the activity as part of their multicultural counseling training. The researchers utilized the popular films Crash and Precious to stimulate student dialogue and reflection on topics pertaining to race, culture, privilege, and social justice. The findings indicate that popular films, when implemented in conjunction with reflective learning activities, are effective in promoting students’ multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. Participants reported that the pedagogic activity was effective in bringing to life the multicultural course concepts and stimulating difficult but necessary conversations about race, ethnicity, privilege, and power. Finally, implications of this study could further inform the field of multicultural counselor education.     

Calvary and the church broken for the world

The film Calvary raises a host of issues around how the movie‐going public understands clergy. Perceptions of clergy are often caught between expectations of hypocrisy and accusations of naivety. By subverting any sharp distinctions between that which is “holy” and that which is fully human in the calling of the priest, the movie demonstrates a kind of cinematic Christology that is also instructive for ecclesiological purposes, particularly when put in dialogue with the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the same subject.     

Use of Film in Undergraduate Human Services: Understanding the Addiction and Recovery Process

ABSTRACT

Steady growth of the addiction field requires human service education programs to prepare competent professionals who can successfully engage in addiction practice. Competency in addiction practice requires human service students to develop an objective understanding of the relapse prevention and recovery process. Though research supports the use of media tools in the classroom, its use in developing addiction intervention competencies in human service students is unknown. The authors present an exploration of the film 28 Days as an addiction recovery teaching tool and discuss students’ understanding of recovery and relapse prevention. Implications for addiction and human service education are also presented.