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IAP 2012 Activities by Sponsor

MIT Medical

Woody Allen's Neuroses and Ours: A Psychological Analysis of Woody Allen's films
Jennifer Yalof
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

With movie clips from 14 Woody Allen films, including: Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Session 1: Nostalgia and Fantasy as a Form of Escapism (Movie Clips: Midnight in Paris, Annie Hall, Manhattan and Radio Days)

Session 2: Getting Away with Murder: How Individuals Use Rationalization and other Defenses to Suppress Their Anxieties (Movie Clip: Crimes and Misdemeanors)

Session 3: Exploring the Pursuer- Distancer Relationship (Movie Clips: Hannah and her Sisters, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Vicky Christina Barcelona)

Session 4: Woody Allen: Defining Treatment ( What’s New, Pussy Cat? Annie Hall, Antz, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? Another Woman)
Contact: Jennifer Yalof, E23-209, x3-5240, yalo@med.mit.edu

Nostalgia and Fantasy as a Form of Escapism (Movie Clips: Midnight in Paris, Annie Hall, Manhattan and Radio Days)
Jennifer Yalof
When one thinks of escapism in the movies, one usually pictures flying cars in shining futuristic cities, rendered in 3-D and surround sound. However, for decades, audiences have been enthralled by Woody Allen's stories, which usually (with one satiric exception) look to the past for escape from the present. This mirrors the way in which most people utilize memory and nostalgia to escape from present stresses, a well-worn area of study in psychiatry and psychoanalytic theory.
Tue Jan 10, 07-08:30pm, 4-159

Getting Away with Murder: How Individuals Use Rationalization and other Defenses to Suppress Their Anxieties (Movie Clip: Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Jennifer Yalof
At times both glorified and loathed, murderers have captured society’s attention and remain fascinating characters of study. What compels somebody to take another human beings life? Perhaps more intriguing, what makes a guilty individual plead innocence? A psychoanalyst might argue that when someone constructs a plan to take another person’s life and then justifies it, defense mechanisms come into play. Woody Allen’s "Crimes and Misdemeanors” portrays this point by showing how morality, mortality and morosity overtake a man at life's crossroads when he has to reconcile conflicting actions.
Tue Jan 17, 07-08:30pm, 4-159

Exploring the Pursuer- Distancer Relationship (Movie Clips: Hannah and her Sisters, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Jennifer Yalof
What do a small doodle in a spiral notebook, a jilted lover on a street corner, and a stalker have in common? They are all participants in the pervasive pursuer-distancer dynamic. Explore this dynamic further through the filmmaker’s lens, and learn more about the rejection and idealization of love objects that most people, at some point in their life, will encounter. But there's more to it than this- Hannah takes us inside the family characters with insights, while Annie Hall captures the sadness brought about by the ending of an idealizing romanticism as it matures into realistic choice.
Tue Jan 24, 07-08:30pm, 4-159

Woody Allen: Defining Treatment ( What’s New, Pussy Cat? Annie Hall, Antz, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? Another Woman)
Jennifer Yalof
What looms in your mind when you envision a psychoanalyst? For some, an image of a bespeckled, bewhiskered aging man with a thick accent is a popular, if not antiquated, visual picture. Although Sigmund Freud popularized this image through his own physical appearance, there have been many psychoanalysts since him. Through visiting some of Woody Allen’s work, we will be able to explore Allen’s timeless understanding of psychoanalysis, and in turn, the publics. We will take a look at a clip of Allen discussing his personal experience in psychoanalysis and how this involvement translated on screen. For a man seemingly mocking psychoanalysis, he certainly enjoyed treatment- 30 years’ worth! Explore the paradox further in this session.
Tue Jan 31, 07-08:30pm, 4-159


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Last update: 7 Sept. 2011