Media and the Inner World

The application of psychoanalysis to culture can be traced back to Freud himself. In the academic setting, there are two spheres of interest in psychoanalytic theory. In the humanities, the work of Freud and Lacan is taken up as a methodological tool of textual analysis. In cultural studies, psychoanalysis informs the critical analysis of culture and identity. There has been a concentration in such work on matters related to representation and subjectivity. By contrast, in the sociological context, which sometimes underpins media studies, psychoanalysis is used to illuminate the relationship between politics and society. Some of this work draws on a specifically British frame of psychoanalytic theory embodied in the 'object relations' work of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott amongst others. This network takes as its starting point the idea that academic approaches to popular culture can benefit from a return to psychoanalysis because of the increasingly important role of the media in shaping a sense of identity and culture. The role of the media in the inner world is central here.
With a few exceptions, most applications of psychoanalysis to culture tend to dwell on 'high' cultural forms: novels, art, theatre etc; popular culture tends to be ignored. 'Media and the Inner World' aims to develop a new psycho-cultural method to analyse current media trends and popular cultural texts. Taking a pluralistic psychoanalytic approach, it examines the fantasies that circulate through media forms and the relationship of audiences to them. It pays attention to the fears, anxieties, pleasures and desires at play in contemporary media contexts. Against a backdrop of 'therapeutic culture' and concerns about emotional governance and regulation, the Western media increasingly utilise psychological discourses and images of both emotional suffering and development, manifesting a deeper cultural desire for therapeutic understanding. Such images include scenes of emotional breakdown in reality TV; the depiction of psychotherapy as a tool of the self in TV dramas and chat shows; themes of emotional and psychological development in fly-on-the-wall documentaries and radio phone-ins. The implications of such representations for audiences need discussion, as do the fantasies and cultural responses they are likely to evoke. The participation of psychotherapists in the activities of the network will be central to the discussions, and themes of affect, fantasy and the status of the media in relation to our inner worlds will be explored.
The cultural positioning of audiences is also significant. Despite social and cultural scepticism, the language of psychoanalysis increasingly plays a role in mediating popular images of psychotherapy and psychological discussions about cultural phenomena. Media representations of psychoanalysis arguably also impact on the perceived reliability of therapeutic intervention. In view of this, practitioners in the media industries will be invited to shed light on production processes, ethics and values. They will also provide insight into the costs of working in stressful media environments, thus tapping into issues of emotionality and practice.
Despite the prevalence in today's media of matters of emotion, psychoanalysis has fallen out of fashion in academic media studies. As a result, it is rarely cited as a way of understanding the cultural scene and charges of universalism abound. Yet paying attention to the cultural and historical specificity of media, it is possible to apply psychoanalytic discourse in a way that takes account of the psychological complexities of contemporary cultural experience. A key focus of the network is to put the case for psychoanalysis in helping to understand the often irrational emotions, anxieties and desires of everyday life. To this end, it adopts a nuanced approach to academic criticism, establishing the importance of dialogue with clinicians and media practitioners.