ABSTRACT
This chapter develops some of the concerns of the previous one by focusing on the basic distinctions between signs and symbols as they are understood in the context of film theory. It does so as a means of highlighting some of the distinctive qualities of the Jungian approach to films and also to underscore some of the pitfalls inherent in it. In the early part of the chapter there are some basic definitions of sign and symbol, signifier and signified. Subsequently, the argument contextualises and fractures those seemingly clear distinctions. Toward the middle and end, this chapter presents a more nuanced argument as a means to locate the distinctive qualities of a Jungian conception of the symbolic. In so doing it mounts a critique of Lacanian and Deleuzian ideas.
