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Demons of the Mind
Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s
by Tim Snelson, William MacAuley and David Allen Kirby
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Book Presentation:
Examines the mental health interventions that changed 1960s British and American cinema
• The first interdisciplinary study of the relationship between the ‘psy’ sciences and cinema, written by scholars in the fields of film studies, history of science and medicine, and science communication
• The first monograph providing comparative analysis of British and American psychiatric cultures and film cultures
• Based on extensive primary research undertaken in British and United States film and medical archives (e.g., Margaret Herrick Library, British Board of Film Classification, Wellcome Trust, R.D. Laing collection)
• Draws upon funded-AHRC and Wellcome projects
• Six case study chapters offering fresh perspectives on the production, mediation and reception of some well-known and cult British and Hollywood films
• Accessibly written to appeal to non-academic audiences interested in cinema, popular science and the Sixties as well as students and other scholars
In the 1960s, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals intervened in and influenced cinema culture in unprecedented ways, changing how films were conceived, produced, censored, exhibited and received by audiences.
Drawing upon extensive archival research, Demons of the Mind provides the first interdisciplinary account of the complex contestations and cross-pollinations of the ‘psy’ sciences (psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology) and cinema in Britain and America during the defining ‘long 1960s’ period of the late-1950s to early-1970s.
This interdisciplinary book incorporates expertise from film studies, history of science and medicine, and science communication. The originality of this book is not solely its interdisciplinarity and exploration beyond the narrow study of representational practices – typically the primary focus of other books on cinema and the psy professions. In large part, this book’s originality rests on its investigation of situated practices and interplay between ideas, expertise and professionals that constitute the fields of mental health and media.
About the authors:
Tim Snelson is an Associate Professor in Media History at the University of East Anglia. His research addressing the relationship between media and social history has been published in journals including Media History, History of Human Sciences, Cultural Studies and The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. He has explored wartime cycles of psychological horror and crime films in a book titled Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and the Home Front (2015).https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8282-2432William R. Macauley is a Lecturer at the University of Manchester and Senior Research Associate at the Science Museum, London. He has an academic background and extensive research experience in psychology and the history of science, technology, and medicine. His work has been published in scholarly books and journals including History of the Human Sciences, Journal of British Cinema and Television, History of Technology, and the Journal of Sonic Studies.https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1748-9610David A. Kirby is Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Liberal Arts and Professor in Science and Technology Studies at Calfornia Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. His research examines how movies, television, and computer games act as vehicles of scientific communication. He has explored the collaboration between scientists and the entertainment industry in his book Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema (2013). He is currently writing a book titled Indecent Science: Religion, Science, and Movie Censorship, which will explore how movies served as a battleground over science’s role in influencing morality.https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8872-1237
Press Reviews:
An astute and thoughtful book, Demons of the Mind opens up the multiple ways in which sciences such as psychology and psychiatry interacted and intersected with the production, censorship and reception of film during the 1960s. The authors deftly keep cinema and science in dialogue, providing an insightful and important account of the different voices and interests at stake in representing and treating mental illness.
– Yvonne Tasker, University of Leeds
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
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