Editorial

In producing a special issue of the journal on Couples and Families in Film, we intentionally kept the title as broad as possible, inviting contributors to interpret the theme freely. What resulted is a rich array of articles, and we wished we had enough space to include more. Like dreams, films tell stories that reveal truths. Psychoanalysis enriches our understanding of film, and films, in turn, illuminate aspects of our patients’ lives—and our own. Unanticipated connections between articles and reviews revealed common thematic threads that we chose to follow organically. Consequently, we have modified the usual format of the journal and woven film reviews into the larger discussion rather than presenting them in a separate section.

Starting with the impact of early trauma, Christopher Clulow reflects on the intricate and often painful interplay between abandonment and adoption, highlighting how these experiences contribute to shaping an individual's sense of self. Following the internal and external journey of the Franco-Korean female protagonist of Chou's film Return to Seoul (France, ), Clulow explores identity formation, focusing on the complex dynamics of cross-cultural and cross-racial adoptions. Through a sensitive analysis of the film, he illustrates how early disrupted attachments can influence a person's ability to cultivate and sustain meaningful relationships in adulthood and how conflict over commitment, heightened by adoption, interferes with experiencing a coherent sense of self and felt security in couple relationships.

Cristelle Lebon's review of the South Korean film Broker (Kore-eda, ), provides a compelling reflection on the “process of family subjectivation”. She examines how a group of marginalised individuals, each grappling with personal histories of loss and abandonment, unexpectedly form a makeshift family. Together, they embark on a journey to find adoptive parents for a baby that one member has decided to relinquish, portraying the comple