You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
For this issue of Psychoanalytic Perspectives, six authors describe a transformative experience while watching a film. I consider a darkened theater the ultimate holding environment, so it felt organic to organize my section around this theme. When I made this decision, however, Covid-19 was just beginning to rear its ugly spikes. I didn’t realize how much I took the simplicity of movie-going for granted. Now, the idea feels luxurious—an indulgent escape from reality that I deeply miss. In its absence, I’ve had more time to reflect on how the cinema has played such a central role in shaping my identity.
Perhaps most significant is the film Dead Man Walking, seen in my early adolescence. In the film’s final moments, the main character is executed for a grisly crime he committed years earlier. Though this man is unquestionably guilty, the horror of what was happening on screen, and my empathy for this terribly complicated, traumatized person, expanded my awareness of the complexities of human nature. It was the first inkling I had that I wanted to dedicate my life to understanding other people. Through this character-driven film, I questioned my child-like perceptions of morality and the danger of letting ignorance and fear guide one’s actions. My therapeutic self was emerging.
The following pages, through poetry and prose, describe similar moments of meeting at the movies. One author writes of being forced to see a film on a rainy summer day at camp in childhood—a dramatic tale of devastation, alcoholism, and loss. Another describes how viewing Hiroshima Mon Amour awakened his political consciousness and illuminated the perils of refusing to remember the past. Another author takes us to a summer evening in his boyhood, when a movie introduces him to the excitement and allure of the adult world. Each contribution captures the singular ability of film to help us make sense of the world and explore our innermost desires.