ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic film theory represents a development of-rather than a departure from-cine-semiotics, for, as Christian Metz points out, “both linguistic studies and psychoanalytic studies are sciences of the very fact of meaning, of signification” (Metz 1979:9). Some film theorists saw a relation between the way that the human psyche (in general) and cinematic representation (in particular) function, and felt that Freud’s theory of human subjectivity and unconscious production could shed new light on the textual processes involved in film-making and viewing. One of the aims, therefore, of psychoanalytic film theory is a systematic comparison of the cinema as a specific kind of spectacle and the structure of the socially and psychically constituted individual. This approach views psychoanalysis as a general field of investigation, a structuring matrix in which the various terms and concepts interconnect to provide a framework for elaborating this relation. For this reason, the discussion of film-specific terms will be preceded by a brief outline of psychoanalysis.
