Freud/Lynch: Behind the Curtain

by Stefan Marianski (Editor), Jamie Ruers (Editor)

The films of David Lynch are sometimes said to be unintelligible. They confront us with strange dreamscapes populated with bizarre characters, obscure symbols and an infuriating lack of narrative consistency. Yet despite their opacity, they hold us transfixed. Lynch, who once told an interviewer, "I love dream logic," would surely agree with Sigmund Freud's famous claim that "before the problem of the creative artist, psychoanalysis must lay down its arms." But what else might the two agree on? Rather than presuming to fill in what Lynch leaves open by positing some forbidden psychosexual reality lurking behind his trademark red curtains, this book instead maintains a fidelity to the mysteries of his wonderful and strange filmic worlds, finding in them productive spaces where thought and imagination can be set to work. With contributions from scholars, psychoanalysts, cinephiles, and filmmakers, this collection of essays explores potential affinities and disjunctions between Lynch and Freud. Encompassing themes such as art, identity, architecture, fantasy, dreams, hysteria and the unconscious, Freud/Lynch takes as its point of departure the possibility that the enterprise in which these two distinct investigators are engaged might in some sense be a shared one.

Genres: Psychoanalysis

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2022

Reviews

[Hollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays that look at connections / reflections / considerations between the work of David Lynch and Freud.

Lynch has refused to explain what his art means and apparently walked out of his first and only session with a psychiatrist because he feared the process could disrupt his creativity. So this was always going to be interesting.

Some of the concepts went totally over my head having only studied a Psychology A Level but I feel like I got a lot out of reading this.

Beware! The essays assume a comprehensive knowledge of Lynch. There are notable spoilers for Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks The Return.

[Nicholas Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freud/Lynch is a thrilling read. You get the feel of the conference itself by going through the papers, and the panel at the end is a real treat with everyone bringing great insight. Freud/Lynch really makes the silent alliance of these two figures nicely clear while still leaving Lynch's aversions operative--it'd be worth a deeper look.

To really dig in, starting with the book McGowan published earlier, The Impossible David Lynch, is probably best (I adore that book)...and then Freud/Lynch becomes a nice addendum. Most of the papers of Freud/Lynch are pretty punchy and don't require much knowledge of Freud, but the discussion around The Return does bring in Lacan and sometimes his graphs.

There's a real celebratory feel here centered around the release of Twin Peaks The Return. Freud/Lynch really sets the foundation for a deeper look into Lynch today.