ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns three lms variously concerned with former Argentine soccer player, Diego Maradona, as an object of intense psychodynamic investment for his fans worldwide. The term ‘psychodynamic’ refers to how “unconscious mental activity” and “conscious thoughts, feelings and behavior” are dynamically interrelated (Cabaniss et al. 2011: 4), but in ways that are only partially or inconsistently consciously accessible. Drawing on concepts derived from Freudian and object relations psychoanalysis, the chapter focuses, rst, on how Maradona is a varied and often contradictory object of psychodynamic investment for his fans, then on how his status as such is represented and explored in these lms.
