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John Izod and Terrie Waddell's books on Jungian approaches to the analysis of screen material show how the promise of the application of Jungian ideas to the understanding and interpretation of films, documentaries, and television series is bearing mature fruit. Although the two books have a different aim and a different style from each other, both
of them engage with their subject matter with a passionate enthusiasm, each confident that the subject is not only valid, but also benefits from the application of Jungian and post-Jungian ideas. John Izod is Professor of Screen Analysis and Head of the Department of Film & Media Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland. His two previous books (on the films of Nicholas Roeg (Izod 1992) and on Hero myths in film and screen (Izod 2001) sought to look at film and screen material using a Jungian perspective. His latest book builds on this background and aims to do something slightly different. As the subtitle to the book puts it, this is to explore ‘a post-Jungian approach to working with the audience’. Part of his exploration is of the way in which films and documentaries are made, and the subsequent impact of this on viewers. He notes that archetypal themes continue to give audiences something to identify with and to be moved by, but he notes that this process of audience engagement is not always something that is deliberately sought by the director. At times, the deliberate use of framing of shots, of choice of scene, of lens and of lighting, move the audience in ways that are independent of the characters or the story being portrayed. In this, he is clear that though the filmed product is just that—something produced by a maker—none the less, a viewer will have a range of different responses to it depending on their own internal make-up, the setting in which it is viewed, as well as the cultural and political context in which the film is set and in which it is viewed.
Izod gives us deep readings of a number of ‘ma