The Psychologist Online on Inland Empire

Online-only article: David Lynch and psychosis
David Lynch’s latest film, Inland Empire, takes us closer to the heart of his psychotic universe. Huw Green enjoys the journey.

 Introduction: The word ‘surrealist’ is frequently applied to the work of maverick American film director David Lynch (Bradshaw & Gilchrist, 2007). This automatically links his name with the art movement that has drawn the most on psychology and psychiatry, specifically the idea of the unconscious and dream interpretation.

While ‘surreal’ has come to be shorthand for any work of art that draws on bizarre or difficult imagery, I believe that Lynch’s dark and mysterious films can be seen to draw upon-and to inform-concepts in modern clinical approaches to psychology, especially the psychology of psychosis.

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