El cine como terapia: el psicoanálisis en la obra de Woody Allen

Abstract

There is undoubtedly no other film producer who has devoted such attention to psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts as Woody Allen. The work of this New York film maker is based on a series of formal, narrative, and thematic constants in which issues such as emotional instability and its psychotherapeutic treatment –normally addressed in comic tone- are featured strongly. Additionally, owing to their peculiar structures some of the most representative movies of Allen’s universe can in the long run be understood as exercises in psychological release. In Allen’s films the figure of the psychiatrist is usually represented with criticism in mind, although the need for such professionals in this contemporary urban world of ours, in which confusion and meaninglessness are rampant, is not demeaned. For all of the above, then, Woody Allen is considered to be one of the pivotal references in the cinematographic treatment of the obsessions of our times.