Cinema and Psychology

Delve into the intersecting worlds of cinema and the ‘psy’ sciences (psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychology) in the long 1960s through these stories, created by the Demons of the Mind project.

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Two women in white lab coats lean over an EEG readout

Brain Machines: EEG technologies in movies

Discover how the invention of the electroencephalograph (EEG) changed popular understandings of the human brain, and transformed science fiction.

Freud on Film: Psychoanalysis and Cinema

In the 1890s, psychoanalysis and cinema offered new ways of seeing ourselves in the world. How did they influence each other in popular movies?

From asylums to anarchy: The straitjacket and popular culture

From Houdini’s escapes to anti-psychiatry films, explore depictions of the straitjacket in pop culture. What do they tell us about our ideas about psychiatry?

A young girl and a woman in a white coat play with toys

The mind of a child: Child psychology and cinema

Find out how child psychology has shaped popular films about children from the silent era until today.

Explore the stories

Brain Machines: EEG technologies in movies

Freud on Film: Psychoanalysis and Cinema

From asylums to anarchy: The straitjacket and popular culture

The mind of a child: Child psychology and cinema

Part of the Science Museum Group