The relation between a theory and its so-called “object” always poses the danger of reducing an art form (in this case film) to a mere instance testifying to the validity of the theory. In this way, the theory provides the “genus” of which a given film will be a mere “species”. The application of psychoanalytic ideas or Marxist concepts to film would therefore run the risk of depriving the specificity and singularity of the object in favour of the hegemony of the theory. Here, theory would truly live up to its theological vocation (the “theo” in theory refers to God) standing transcendentally above its “object” upon which it would cast its daunting shadow. By contrast to this reductive approach, one that is commonly applied in film studies scholarship, we are venturing to consider film as theory rather than through theory. Thus, each of the films explored in the articles here collected will provide the occasion for the expansion of theory rather than serve as a playing field for already existing conceptual apparatuses. This situation is akin to that of psychoanalytic as well as political practice where the distinction between theory and praxis is dissolved such that listening to an analysand or engaging in political activism are not opposed to theory but are understood, rather, as essential moments constitutive of theory’s deployment. For Althusser, psychoanalysis and Marxism constitute a unity of theory and praxis. In a similar vein, the chapters here testify to the unity of the artistic cinematic form and various theoretical apparatuses. Just as every clinical case and every instance of political resistance offers a unique and singular occasion for the deepening and reinvention of psychoanalytic and political theory, here films provide the “singular universal” through which theory may further develop. Hegel famously held that a theoretical concept must change in its application to a given case. No act of theoretical intervention leaves the concept as it formerly was. Likewise, we believe that psychoanalysis and Marxism can never remain as they were after they are applied to film. The relation between theory and praxis here put forward with respect to film can be recast in terms of the crucial difference between presentation and re-presentation. In this way, films will be considered as presentations akin to the Lacanian real or the Freudian symptom while the theories deployed by the various contributors will provide tools for representing the latter. The question of representation will be approached in the book through the aforementioned twofold perspectives of politics and psychoanalysis. The first focuses on cinematic representations and critiques of ideology while the second considers film from the perspective of libidinal enjoyment, namely the visual and auditory pleasure provided by film. This volume brings together chapters exploring films from either of these two poles as well as papers combining the two. For instance, chapters focusing on the psychoanalytic pole explore the oneiric function of film and the question of jouissance in the cinematic experience. Contributions focusing on the political pole explore themes such as the contemporary rise of “eat the rich” films directly exploring matters pertaining to ideology critique.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, there was an explosion of scholarly books that attempted to make links between cinema studies and psychoanalysis including E. Anne Kaplan’s Psychoanalysis and Cinema (1990), Harvey R. Greenberg’s Screen Memories: Hollywood Cinema on the Psychoanalytic Couch (1993), Janet Bergstrom’s Endless Night: Cinema and Psychoanalysis, Parallel Histories (1999), Vicky Lebeau’s Psychoanalysis and Cinema (2001), and Todd McGowan and Sheila Kunkle’s Lacan and Contemporary Film (2004). Although these are excellent texts in their own respects, these titles were published more than twenty years ago and an exploration that brings together cinema studies and psychoanalysis has not received a significant update for contemporary times. Furthermore, most of these titles take either a historical approach that explores cinema as media emerging alongside the invention of Freudian psychoanalysis at the dawn of the twentieth century or delve into theoretical examinations of individual films through the lens of psychoanalysis. Our contributors take an alternative and innovative approach that encourages readers to engage with films as theoretical interventions in themselves and as symptomatic of pressing political conundrums.

We are seeking papers for a book under contract with a publisher that would align with the themes in this overview. Please send proposal, bio, and CV for submission by November 1st, 2026. Final papers will be due on January 15th, 2027 with this deadline being firm.