Spellbound

Hitchcock meets Freud in this noir romance about memory, guilt, and a man who may be a murderer as part of our monthly Philofilm series, introduced and discussed by Maaike van der Horst.

Having retired from his position as head of the Green Manors Mental Asylum, Dr. Murchison assigns famous psychiatrist Dr. Edwards as his replacement. Dr. Edwards becomes attracted to the beautiful but cold Dr. Constance Petersen who soon realises that he is in fact a paranoid amnesiac impostor. She sets out to cure him whilst solving the mystery of what happened to the real Dr. Edwards.

Spellbound (1945) was one of the first movies ever where psychoanalysis is depicted. It came out right after the Second World War, and audiences at the time were deeply interested in trauma. The movie allows for reflections on the psyche (particularly on repression), sexism and romantic love. We follow a female psychoanalyst who risks losing herself to love. Besides that, a murder mystery is attempted to be solved.

Spellbound may not be on the list of Hitchcock classics, but the film is famous and beloved for several striking visual experiments, including the gloriously absurdist dream sequence, born from the mind of artist Salvador Dalí.

About the speaker
Maaike van der Horst is a PhD researcher at the University of Twente in the philosophy of technology. In her research, she examines sex robots from a psychoanalytic, and in particular Lacanian, perspective.

About Philofilm 
Philofilm is a monthly series, in which, on each first Monday of the month, a film is introduced and discussed by a philosopher. The evenings are entirely in the English language. Philofilm is a collaboration between Concordia and Ideefiks, the study association for Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Twente.