Our guest today is Helena Bassil-Morozow , a cultural philosopher, writer, and lecturer in media and communication at Glasgow Caledonian University. She’s interested in ways in which we interact with our society, and particularly how our identities are shaped by our environment. Her books include ‘Tim Burton: The Monster and the Crowd’ , ‘The Trickster in Contemporary Film’. Her latest book which she has co-written with Luke Hockley and which comes out in December is entitled ‘Jungian Film Studies: the Essential Guide’ and this is going to be the topic of our discussion.
MWS Podcast 106: Helena Bassil-Morozow as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_106_Helena_Bassil_Morozow
A very interesting podcast! I have quite a selective taste in films, so I haven’t seen many of the ones mentioned, but I was very interested by the discussion of the trickster as a figure who unbungs the integration process. That’s an important role that potentially combines elements of all the four major archetypes: God, hero, anima/us and shadow. An archetype I could think and write about more.
As regards the Middle Way and film, I’d say the most important relationship between archetypes and the Middle Way is one Helena didn’t mention: that unconsciously projected archetypes are absolutised and not integrable. For example, if you just laugh at the trickster’s antics without considering how they might challenge your own assumptions, you’ll be absolutising the trickster’s role rather than integrating it. In the Middle Way, then, we could try to recognise the archetypes on film and understand them as such, so we don’t just unconsciously project them onto one extreme or the other. Helena’s work should undoubtedly help us do that, encouraging us to watch films with more awareness.