Citation

Bainbridge C. Br. J. Psychother. 2019; 35(1): 142-155.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/bjp.12426

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article focuses on Lars von Trier's 2011 film, Melancholia, described as ?a beautiful film about the end of the world? and interlocking personal and global tragedy. Drawing directly on her personal emotional response to the film, and referring to her profound incapacity to talk about it for many years after an initial encounter with it, the author turns to a range of object relations psychoanalytic thinkers to consider what such experience has to say about lived emotional relationships to cinema, and its role in shaping and articulating psychological, and affective states. The article touches on debates about the cinematic gaze, and the role of film as a psychological object, and considers whether film might be seen as offering a form of therapeutic encounter for viewers.

Keywords

Affect; Cinema; Film; Lars Von Trier; Melancholia; Object Relations