Television and Psychoanalysis - Psycho-Cultural Perspectives (Paperback)

This volume takes up perspectives from object relations theory and other psychoanalytic approaches to ask questions about the role of television as an object of the internal worlds of its viewers, and also addresses itself to a range of specific television programs, ranging from Play School, through the plays of Jack Rosenthal to recent TV blockbuster series such as In Treatment . In addition, it considers the potential of television to open up new public spaces of therapeutic experience. At the same time, however, the pitfalls of reality programming are explored with reference to the politics of entertainment and the televisual values that heighten the drama of representation rather than emphasizing the emotional experience of reality television participants and viewers. A recurring theme throughout is that television becomes a psychological object for its viewers and producers, maintaining the psychological "status quo" on the one hand and yet simultaneously opening up playful spaces of creative, therapeutic engagement for these groups. This collection of essays arises from a conference organized by the Media and the Inner World research network in collaboration with the Freud Museum."