Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s

In the 1960s, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals intervened in and influenced cinema culture in unprecedented ways, changing how films were conceived, produced, censored, exhibited and received by audiences.
Drawing upon extensive archival research, Demons of the Mind provides the first interdisciplinary account of the complex contestations and cross-pollinations of the ’psy’ sciences (psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology) and cinema in Britain and America during the defining ’long 1960s’ period of the late-1950s to early-1970s.
This interdisciplinary book incorporates expertise from film studies, history of science and medicine, and science communication. The originality of this book is not solely its interdisciplinarity and exploration beyond the narrow study of representational practices - typically the primary focus of other books on cinema and the psy professions. In large part, this book’s originality rests on its investigation of situated practices and interplay between ideas, expertise and professionals that constitute the fields of mental health and media.

Tim Snelson is an Associate Professor in Media History at the University of East Anglia. His research addressing the relationship between media and social history has been published in journals including Media History, History of Human Sciences, Cultural Studies and The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. He has explored wartime cycles of psychological horror and crime films in a book titled Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and the Home Front (2015). https: //orcid.org/0000-0002-8282-2432

William R. Macauley is a Lecturer at the University of Manchester and Senior Research Associate at the Science Museum, London. He has an academic background and extensive research experience in psychology and the history of science, technology, and medicine. His work has been published in scholarly books and journals including History of the Human Sciences, Journal of British Cinema and Television, History of Technology, and the Journal of Sonic Studies. https: //orcid.org/0000-0002-1748-9610

David A. Kirby is Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Liberal Arts and Professor in Science and Technology Studies at Calfornia Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. His research examines how movies, television, and computer games act as vehicles of scientific communication. He has explored the collaboration between scientists and the entertainment industry in his book Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema (2013). He is currently writing a book titled Indecent Science: Religion, Science, and Movie Censorship, which will explore how movies served as a battleground over science’s role in influencing morality. https: //orcid.org/0000-0002-8872-1237