Media and the Inner World

The Media and the Inner World research network set out to bring together psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, academics and media practitioners to explore the role of emotion and therapy in popular culture and the media through the lens of object relations psychoanalytic theory. The aim was to create a dialogue between these different constituent groups to enable knowledge exchange and create further opportunities for its development. To this end, we held a series of two symposia and nine public round table discussion events in public venues at no charge to participants. The network successfully fulfilled its objectives, attracting a broad range of audiences from a range of different backgrounds. The influence of therapy culture and its meanings were widely debated and both academic and clinical perspectives formed the basis for a number of publications. Perspectives on images of psychotherapy in the popular imagination were successfully explored at a number of events. Similarly processes of media production, ethics and values were interrogated in relation to print media, celebrity culture and documentary filmmaking.

As a result of these network activities, we established some fruitful links with a range of external organisations and we are now setting out to develop these. In particular, we aim to develop training opportunities and to further knowledge exchange between academic researchers, psychotherapists and media professionals. A number of potential links have been fostered with a view to enabling this, and the proposed activities will help to consolidate the outcomes of the network in relation to the needs of the therapeutic and media professional communities. In addition, we plan to extend the remit of our work by exploring the potential to influence policy. There is particular scope to do this in relation to media policy, especially with regard to documentary media formats and questions of best ethical practice in relation to the representation of emotional experience.

As mentioned above, the success of the network has resulted in several opportunities for future development. Links with institutions such as the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the Freud Museum and Mosaic Networking, will be developed through a programme of collaborative provision to provide CPD courses for professionals and general interest courses for the public, grounded in the intellectual foundations of our project. Our links will also be used in the joint organisation of a number of public events.For example, we have been invited to organise further round table events for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Royal Academy of Music. We are also planning to arrange a number of film screenings in collaboration with the Freud Museum and are intending to bid for a programme strand at the East London Film Festival.

The scholarly aspects of the project will be further developed through a number of additional publication opportunities, all of which go beyond the original schedule of planned outcomes and this will help to reinforce the academic impact of the work that has been undertaken.

The impact of MiW can be gauged with reference to a number of key areas, demonstrating economic, social, cultural and academic pathways to impact related to the spheres of intellectual research and practitioner and professional communities in the fields of media, psychotherapy, and cultural institutions including museums in the public sector and private cultural organisations such as film festivals and media networking groups. In bringing together members of the public, psychotherapists and media practitioners, our project will enable psychotherapy organisations and individual practitioners to expand the visibility of their work. There is clear potential here for MiW to have social and economic impact by contributing to the development and take-up of psychotherapy amongst its membership base and audiences and thus there is potential for impact on the health and well-being of the nation. In addition, the collaborations we propose to make between media professionals and those from the world of psychotherapy may well result in closer working relationships between media and psychotherapy organisations. There is impact potential here in terms of ensuring the social and cultural visibility of psychotherapy in relation to mental health policy. In addition, there is scope for the practice-based organisations to collaborate in terms of developing recruitment and training strategies and we propose to exploit this opportunity by offering professional development courses aimed at serving this need. Our plan to develop a special seminar in collaboration with documentary film production companies around questions of ethics and documentary participation is directly linked to OFCOM policy-making, demonstrating the potential for policy influence. Our bid focuses on developing links with several external organisations from the public health, third and heritage sectors. We are also bidding to curate a series of films for inclusion in the East End Film Festival to be held in 2012. These activities will contribute to the development of the culture of the nation, as they are intended for public consumption. The sphere of economic and social impact will further be enhanced by the collaborations between MiW and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and the Freud Museum to create a range of CPD and public-facing courses. These activities importantly will enable the non-HEI institutions involved to make economic gains as a direct result of collaborating with the MiW network. They will also serve to enhance the public visibility of the MiW network and will ensure that MiW is closely involved in the activities being undertaken within the practitioner- and professional communities associated with psychotherapy, emotion and well-being. As detailed in the outcomes section and as elaborated in the Case for Support, many of these pathways to impact will be immediately implemented as they form the substance of the project for work for the duration of any award that may be made. Our project partners have also already indicated that these activities will be used as a means of monitoring the potential market for further collaborative developments and so the activities we have proposed here may be seen as pilots for future consolidation and there is thus significant potential for the network to produce long-standing collaborative relationships between non-HEI organisations and academia to the benefit of the universities and users involved. Such relationships would underpin the claims for impact that MiW can make with reference to the health, culture and well-being of the nation.