The Psychodynamics of Trauma and Modern Horror Cinema

I Am What Haunts Me

Carlos Pitillas, Ismael Martínez Biurrun, Ismael Martínez-Biurrun

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040295595
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Psychology

In this illuminating volume, Carlos Pitillas and Ismael Martínez-Biurrun provide in-depth analysis of contemporary horror films from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Drawing on Freudian psychoanalysis, object relations theory and relational psychoanalysis, the authors explore the ways in which horror films present different aspects of traumatic phenomenology and the re-emergence of unprocessed traumatic wounds. Covering films as diverse as Psycho, The Babadook, Black Swan, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, the authors dissect the use of symbolism and metaphors in popular horror cinema to show how the disruptive threats faced by characters in these films often function in the same way as post-traumatic stress disorder, and consider behaviours such as repetitive thoughts and actions, dissociation, and more through the lens of neuroscience and narrative theory.

This book is an important and novel read for all psychoanalysts in practice and training looking for new ways to understand and work with clients who have experienced traumatic life events. The authors' use of familiar and canonical horror films also equips students and researchers of film studies with the knowledge necessary to integrate psychoanalytic theories into their work.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• Introduction
• 1 Traumatic disruption in modern horror cinema
• 2 Traumatic fragmentation in modern horror cinema
• 3 Modes of traumatic re-emergence in modern horror cinema
• 4 The hero's darkest journey: Trauma storytelling in modern horror film
• 5 Reclaiming the metaphor, embracing the monster: Using horror films in psychotherapy with traumatized patients
• References
• Index