Psychology, The Unconscious, Myth

Imagination: the power to form a mental image of something that's not there or has not been seen in the "real" world.

Fantasy: a creation of the imagination--which may be probable or improbable. See Role of Culture and Language .

Dream: a kind of fantasy produced by our unconscious. The psychological explanation, initiated by Freud, is that dreams are expressions of our unconscious wishes and fears. And seeing a film in a dark theater is very close to the experience of dreaming. Hence the importance of psychology--or, more specifically, psychoanalysis--for the study of film.

The Unconscious: The unconscious contains desires that are socially unacceptable and, therefore, unacceptable to our conscious minds. Such desires are usually normal. From our earliest years we have desires, some of which (like the desire to be fed right away) we're taught to postpone or control, some (like the desire for our mothers body--WHAT?) we learn to transfer to other people. But, whether controlled, transferred, or transformed into something socially acceptable, the original desire remains. It is repressed (pressed down, held in check) into our unconscious, remains as a kind of force or pressure, and returns in disguised forms in dreams, works of art, etc. Freud calls the the return of the repressed.

Freud has classified a number of these disguise strategies: those which substitute a part for the whole, allusions, images, and symbols. These symbols include a great number of sexual symbols: long, upstanding objects (like sticks, trees, umbrellas, poles) and penetrating objects (pointed weapons like knives and swords, guns, but also pencils, pens, etc.) for the penis; and objects that enclose a space or can act as receptacles (caves, pits, jars, bottles, cupboards, rooms, houses, doorways, windows, etc.) for the female genitals.

The "language" and "logic"--or illogic--of the unconscious. I've put "language" in quotation marks because it is not formed by words but images--hence the importance of Freud for film and to many film makers. Language, as we know it, is a product of the conscious mind and governed by rational rules. The unconscious is pre-rational and, therefore, pre-linguistic. It consists of images, which are related by association. One idea, or image, calls up another from a prior, present, or anticipated experience. When I say "apple," you may think of a red or green fruit, but, at the same time, you may think of lunch because you're hungry. You may think of the apple your grandmother gave you every time you went to her house. You may think of the time you bit into an apple and found half a worm. These are private experiences. But you may also think of the apple that Eve gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden, an image coming from your store of cultural experiences. The shape of the apple, and its cultural association with women and seduction, also makes it available as a disguised image of sexual desire in our dreams.

The concept of unconscious desires is hard to accept because these desires are repressed. So when we're first taught about them, it's only natural to resist. (Not me! I have no desire for my mother's or father's body.  It's also common to resist being trapped by a circular concept that explains our resistance as a way of protecting us from what we've repressed, that is, from what we cannot consciously accept.

Freud asks us to begin thinking about slips of the tongue--those instances when we accidentally say something other than what we'd planned to say, but which nonetheless makes sense and expresses something (we're embarrassed to discover) we care more about. We may say the opposite of what we meant to say, accidentally say the name of someone we love or hate, or substitute something we discover makes sense only after some thought. The unexpected thought has emerged into our consciousness from some level of our unconscious mind. And the connection is formed by the simple principle of association. Puns--words with two or more meanings--are also ways of giving voice to unconscious, as well as conscious, thoughts. And dream images are another. All this can be easily linked to fantasies and other products of the imagination.

The Role of Culture and Language: While dictionaries may define fantasy as resulting from "the free play of the imagination," the imagination is never entirely free. From the moment we're born, our minds begin to be shaped by our culture, the place and procedure of birth, how our parents were trained to think about and act toward babies and children, our childhood training, the stories we're read, and the pictures we've been shown. This does not mean we are trapped by this training, these stories, and these pictures, for we can combine and modify them in infinite ways. Nonetheless, our culture provides the basic store of ideas, stories, and images, as well as a basic set of expectations, which are continually reinforced by laws, religion, schools, books, newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, popular music, advertising, etc. Our culture does not determine, but it does shape--or to be more precise mediate--what we think, believe, see, feel, imagine, and dream.

This means that both our conscious and unconscious thoughts are mediated by our culture. While their may be some universal ideas, values, and desires, they are filtered through--or mediated by--our cultural store of ideas, images, beliefs, and stories and, therefore, given specific form.

Myths may be thought of as cultural fantasies, fantasies that shape our consciousness.  Since myths may be in conflict with reality, they may be the source of a desstructive force.  Consider Willie Loman and the American Myth of Success.