La cultura psicoanalítica en el cine negro americano

Abstract

In the American Film Noir from the classic period (1930-1960), it is possible to perceive the influence of psychoanalytical culture and of Freud’s most widely read works. The theory of drives involves the consideration of the perpetrator of criminal activity as a sick person. This is reflected in the films, where morals are relegated to a secondary plane. The importance of sexuality is reflected in the figure of the “femme fatale” and in behaviours in which the principle of pleasure overarches that of reality. The conscious/unconscious duality and the place of dreams in psychoanalysis are the cornerstones of films addressing the split personality and nightmares that plague essentially decent people. The solution to certain criminal conflicts is not found through police work but through medicine: in such situations the therapist manages to solve the problem of the delinquent behaviour born of sick minds.