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Three Approaches to a Cultural Object: The Film Under the Skin

Received: 10 September 2020    Accepted: 15 October 2020    Published: 11 November 2020
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Abstract

This article presents three approaches to the film Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer (2014) that correspond to three interpretative vertices. The film is an adaptation of Michel Faber´s science fiction novel set in Northern Scotland which follows an extraterrestrial that, manifested in a female human form, drives around the countryside picking up male travelers. She seduces and sends them to her home planet. Her experience on Earth is complex and causes tragical consequences. The impact of the film offered an opportunity for the authors to expand their perspectives on different directions. The first part of the article refers to psychoanalytic concepts that are applied to the film, mainly the psychoanalytical conceptualizations about the body and the starting point of mental functioning. In the second part subjective constructions are evoked by the method of free association which is applied to the film recalling the Marsyas Myth, the confrontation of Oedipus with the Sphynx, the work of Anish Kapoor in his modern version of Flaying Marsyas. A subjective construction is built. These two ways of reading the film are called applied psychoanalysis. The third part, a perspective derived from the articulation between Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and Art Criticism serves as a trigger to read the film in its specificity as a cultural object allowing the expansion of psychoanalytic reflection in the interdisciplinary sense. This third way of reading a piece of art is called implicated psychoanalysis.

Published in American Journal of Applied Psychology (Volume 9, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12
Page(s) 150-159
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Bodily Ego, Skin-ego, Aesthetics, Applied Psychoanalysis, Implicated Psychoanalysis

References
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[16] Glazer, J. (2014). Technical data: Title - Under the Skin; Director – Jonathan Glazer; Actors – Scarlett Johansson, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Paul Brannigan, Krystof Hádek, Michael Moreland, Jessica Mance, Scott Dymond, Steve Keys, Jeremy McWilliams; Duration - 108'; Adaptation of Michael Faber’s novel by Walter Campbell & Jonathan Glazer; Music - Mica Levi; Gender – Scientific fiction and drama.
[17] Gauchet, M. (1992). L’Inconscient cerebral. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ana Belchior Melícias, Maria Aparecida Cabral, João Augusto Frayze-Pereira. (2020). Three Approaches to a Cultural Object: The Film Under the Skin. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 9(6), 150-159. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12

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    ACS Style

    Ana Belchior Melícias; Maria Aparecida Cabral; João Augusto Frayze-Pereira. Three Approaches to a Cultural Object: The Film Under the Skin. Am. J. Appl. Psychol. 2020, 9(6), 150-159. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12

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    AMA Style

    Ana Belchior Melícias, Maria Aparecida Cabral, João Augusto Frayze-Pereira. Three Approaches to a Cultural Object: The Film Under the Skin. Am J Appl Psychol. 2020;9(6):150-159. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12,
      author = {Ana Belchior Melícias and Maria Aparecida Cabral and João Augusto Frayze-Pereira},
      title = {Three Approaches to a Cultural Object: The Film Under the Skin},
      journal = {American Journal of Applied Psychology},
      volume = {9},
      number = {6},
      pages = {150-159},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20200906.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajap.20200906.12},
      abstract = {This article presents three approaches to the film Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer (2014) that correspond to three interpretative vertices. The film is an adaptation of Michel Faber´s science fiction novel set in Northern Scotland which follows an extraterrestrial that, manifested in a female human form, drives around the countryside picking up male travelers. She seduces and sends them to her home planet. Her experience on Earth is complex and causes tragical consequences. The impact of the film offered an opportunity for the authors to expand their perspectives on different directions. The first part of the article refers to psychoanalytic concepts that are applied to the film, mainly the psychoanalytical conceptualizations about the body and the starting point of mental functioning. In the second part subjective constructions are evoked by the method of free association which is applied to the film recalling the Marsyas Myth, the confrontation of Oedipus with the Sphynx, the work of Anish Kapoor in his modern version of Flaying Marsyas. A subjective construction is built. These two ways of reading the film are called applied psychoanalysis. The third part, a perspective derived from the articulation between Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and Art Criticism serves as a trigger to read the film in its specificity as a cultural object allowing the expansion of psychoanalytic reflection in the interdisciplinary sense. This third way of reading a piece of art is called implicated psychoanalysis.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    AB  - This article presents three approaches to the film Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer (2014) that correspond to three interpretative vertices. The film is an adaptation of Michel Faber´s science fiction novel set in Northern Scotland which follows an extraterrestrial that, manifested in a female human form, drives around the countryside picking up male travelers. She seduces and sends them to her home planet. Her experience on Earth is complex and causes tragical consequences. The impact of the film offered an opportunity for the authors to expand their perspectives on different directions. The first part of the article refers to psychoanalytic concepts that are applied to the film, mainly the psychoanalytical conceptualizations about the body and the starting point of mental functioning. In the second part subjective constructions are evoked by the method of free association which is applied to the film recalling the Marsyas Myth, the confrontation of Oedipus with the Sphynx, the work of Anish Kapoor in his modern version of Flaying Marsyas. A subjective construction is built. These two ways of reading the film are called applied psychoanalysis. The third part, a perspective derived from the articulation between Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and Art Criticism serves as a trigger to read the film in its specificity as a cultural object allowing the expansion of psychoanalytic reflection in the interdisciplinary sense. This third way of reading a piece of art is called implicated psychoanalysis.
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Author Information
  • Portuguese Psychoanalytical Society, Lisbon, Portugal

  • Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil

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