Myth, mind, and the screen
understanding the heroes of our times

Myth, Mind and the Screen is a systematic attempt to apply Jungian theory to the analysis of films (including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Silence of the Lambs and The Piano) as well as a variety of cultural icons and products such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and televised sport. Through these and other examples, John Izod shows how Jungian theory can bring tools to film and media studies and ways of understanding screen images and narratives. He also demonstrates how Jungian analysis can provide us with insights into the psychological dimensions of contemporary mythology and the subjective experience of audiences. Perhaps most controversially, he argues that in the Western world cinema and television bear much of the responsibility for collective emotional mediation that in previous centuries was borne by organised religion. This 2001 book is a valuable resource for students of film and media studies, cultural studies and psychoanalytic studies

1. Jungian theory, textual analysis and audience play -- 2. Archetypal images: signification and the psyche -- 3. Archetypal images: symbols and the cultural unconscious -- 4. The Piano, the animus and colonial experience -- 5. The pop star as icon. Androgyny and stardom: cultural meanings of Michael Jackson. A goddess who comes? Madonna as trickster -- 6. The quest of a female hero: The Silence of the Lambs -- 7. Television sport and the sacrificial hero -- 8. The polycentred self: The Passion of Darkly Noon -- 9. Haunted: searching for the whole self -- 10. Transforming the final ghost: the god within -- Glossary of Jungian and related terms