Mis/takes: Archetype, Myth and Identity in Screen Fiction

"Mis/takes" departs from the bulk of screen discourse by applying Jungian and post-Jungian ideas on unconscious processes to popular film and television. This perspective offers a rich insight into the intertextual fusing and reworking of myth in contemporary screen texts. By examining the function of archetypal motifs in cinema and television, Terrie Waddell opens up another way of thinking about how identity can be constructed and disrupted. The following films and programs under analysis have been selected for their relevance to analytical psychology: "Mulholland Drive", "Memento", "The Others", "The X-Files", "Twin Peaks", "The Sopranos", "Spider", "Intimacy" and "Absolutely Fabulous". Each of the book's four sections explore the impact of a number of core psychological patterns and symbols: Jung, Trickster and the Screen; Mistaken Identities, Self-Deception and the Undead; Redeemers, Bad Dads and Matricide; and Excesses of the Sad and the Sassy. "Mis/takes" offers a valuable insight into how experiences of the popular can be intensified by giving readers the chance to engage with screen material in an original and subversive way.This study will be of great interest to Jungian analysts and students of film, cultural studies, media, gender studies and analytical psychology.