The Cinematic Mirror for Psychology and Life Coaching

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Story Board: The “Filmist” Fall of the Cinematic Fourth Wall

   • Mary Banks Gregerson

   Pages 1-16

3. Act One: Introduction

   • Frank S. Pittman III

   Pages 17-27

4. When Will Hollywood Get the Family Right?

   • Jack Cashill

   Pages 29-49

5. The Dawning of Desire Skewed Through a Media Lens and the Loss of American Adolescence: M I 4 U?

   • Mary Banks Gregerson

   Pages 51-76

6. Lives Through Film: 49 UP and the UP Series as a Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Change

   • Kevin Lanning, Samantha A. Montgomery, Justin Bright, Lenore Broming, Misty Hudelson, Rachel E. Pauletti et al.

   Pages 77-88

7. Cinematherapy: Using Movie Metaphors to Explore Real Relationships in Counseling and Coaching

   • Judy Kuriansky, Jeremy Ortman, Jamie DelBuono, Amy Vallarelli

   Pages 89-122

8. International Cinema: An Abundant Mental Health Resource of Films for Education, Communication, and Transformation

   • Ryan M. Niemiec

   Pages 123-153

9. Trauma and the Media: How Movies can Create and Relieve Trauma

   • Ani Kalayjian, Lisa Finnegan Abdolian

   Pages 155-169

10. The Myth of Mental Illness in the Movies and Its Impact on Forensic Psychology

    • L.E.A. Walker, M. Robinson, R.L. Duros, J. Henle, J. Caverly, S. Mignone et al.

    Pages 171-192

11. Looking at Disability Through a Different Lens: Reinterpreting Disability Images in Line with Positive Psychology

    • Rochelle Balter

    Pages 193-200

12. Cinema as Alchemy for Healing and Transformation: Using the Power of Films in Psychotherapy and Coaching

    • Birgit Wolz

    Pages 201-225

13. Deconstructing: Perspectives on Perspective-Making

    • M. Gene Ondrusek

    Pages 227-246

14. The Final Curtain: Movies as Models

    • Danny Wedding

    Pages 247-250

15. Back Matter

    Pages 251-292

    PDF

Cinema both reflects life and contours life—that is its psychological power. And for decades, clinicians and educators have recognized the value of this power, using it to respectively heal in therapy and educate in the classroom. The Cinematic Mirror for Psychology and Life Coaching mines the illustrative value of cinema, offering therapists and life coaches access to ideas that can motivate and enlighten clients.

Although many movie guides exist, this volume complements the available literature by adding positive psychology, mental health, and wellness perspectives to the clinical/educational/coaching mix. The serious intent to cull from cinema its underlying psychological value has motivated noted clinicians, life coaches, and cultural critics to offer science-based analysis and intervention strategies. Readers may add their own movie insights and professional expertise to this rich foundation. The volume covers international as well as domestic cinema in a variety of genres, providing a range of film choices relevant to clients’ lives. Beyond this, it expands on universal concepts of strengths, capabilities, and coping methods. Chapters in The Cinematic Mirror: analyze how movies can create and relieve trauma, challenge Hollywood’s portrayal of the American family, overview the use of movies to examine relationships in therapy, explore the acclaimed Up television cinema verite series as studies in personal growth and social change, reinterprets images of disability in terms of positive psychology, examines models, or the lack thereof, for the American adolescent rite of passage, traces the history of mental illness stereotypes in film.

The collective wisdom found in The Cinematic Mirror for Psychology and Life Coaching will bring professionals involved in healing, coaching, counseling, education, and mentoring not only new applications but new appreciation for the transformative power of film. That power already exists. Readers just have to "SEE" it.

• Counseling
• coaching
• intervention
• psychology
• trauma

From the reviews:

“The edited volume The Cinematic Mirror for Psychology and Life Coaching brings together 13 essays that both address how cinema might be integrated into therapeutic settings and explore the interface between film production in recent decades and psychological concerns such as marriage … . For clinicians, counselors, and coaches in North America … provides a uniquely valuable overview of international filmmaking. … psychologists and life coaches should be ready to deploy more broadly and effectively the cinematic resources described … in this collection.” (Vincent W. Hevern, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 55 (32), August, 2010)

• Leavenworth, U.S.A.

  Mary Banks Gregerson

Dr. Mary Gregerson, a psychologist with specialties in health, environment, and media psychology, has published and presented nationally an internationally on the subject of psychology and film.  In addition, Dr. Gregerson's critiques of films have been published in print and on the Internet.  She has also consulted with theater, television, and film in both the direct portrayals of psychology and psychologists as well as the more subtle integration of psychology into character, plot, and action elements.

Policies and ethics