Sigmund Freud

Provides an overview of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories and uses them as a lens through which to view media and popular culture. The book reviews how Freud’s theories have been applied to the study of film, advertising, news, and public relations, and discusses how scholars can use Freud’s ideas as tools to understand contemporary experiences.

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Sigmund Freud’s theories and clinical practices focused primarily on individuals. As such, they are rarely considered when critiquing collective behavior or symbolic re-presentations. However, as the founder of depth psychology – a field of study that considers how unconscious components of the human experience influence psychological conditions – Freud understood the collective nature of thought and behavior. While his ideas are not typically a perspective applied to the study of media and popular culture, of audiences, or of content creation, once unpacked through a psychoanalytic lens, Freud’s theories shine a bright light on human motivation and expression.





This book is the first presentation of his ideas within this context. It is primarily an introduction to Freud and his theories intended for a communication studies audience. In addition to summarizing Freud’s major concepts, how/when/if they are taught in psychology programs, and the resultant "Freud Wars," this book offers examples of application of his ideas to cinema, advertising, public relations, and other forms of expression and recommendations for future research.





There are implications and applications to the everyday world as well for anyone interested in how theories of human development, beginning with childhood personality construction through adult sexuality, repression, and expression, can be understood through a contemporary lens.