Frames of Mind: A Post-Jungian Look at Film, Television and Technology

When Jung (1875–1961) comments that ‘…image alone is the immediate object of knowledge’1 he makes a claim that is immediately appealing to anyone who wants to understand the meanings that lie in, and behind, films, television programmes and the Internet. For Jung, it is through psychological images that it is possible to come to an understanding of ourselves and of our relationship to the world. As will become clear, these two factors, the individual and his or her cultural location, are inseparable.

That this book adopts a post-Jungian approach might seem to suggest the ideas of analytical psychology are more revealing, or insightful, than those of other schools of psychodynamic thought. This is not necessarily so. However, it is the case that they are less well known, and have been subject to less academic scrutiny and debate. It is also true that analytical psychology offers a rather different perspective to psychoanalysis, not necessarily better but different, raising, as it does, fresh problems and new questions.

Keywords: analytical, psychology, post-Jungian, psychodynamic