January 3 – February 14, 2022 Mondays, 7:00 – 8:15 pm 6 classes / $150 Fee Location: This course will be held virtually on ZOOM Click here, visit nypsi.org or call 212-879-6900 to register

NYPSI Extension Program: Psychoanalytic Themes in Six Hollywood Films II
This course will continue the psychoanalytic exploration of Hollywood films begun in the 2020-2021 year. Once again, we will examine six films in six different genres: wartime adventure, film noir, romantic thriller, melodrama, courtroom drama and “Hollywood” movie. This year’s collection includes several films from the 1950’s during the peak years of psychoanalytic interest among filmmakers. This year we will also link each film with a thematically similar film. We begin with the universally loved and much viewed “Casablanca” (1943). Another film, “Rome Open City” (1945) deals with the same antifascist theme from a radically different perspective. “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955) is, for me, the ultimate film noir. Surprisingly, it presents a critique of the male psychology in its “manifest content”. Other films such as “Gun Crazy” (1949), operate at the same level. “Imitation of Life” (1959) uses the practice of “passing” to address racism in the context of the 1950’s. We will compare it to the contemporary film, “Passing” (2020) available on Netflix. In the guise of an entertaining thriller, “Rear Window” (1954) presents a trenchant critique of the voyeurism that is part and parcel of the Continue reading Psychoanalytic Themes in Six Hollywood Films II with Thomas Wolman, M.D. Online with NYPSI