Psychosocial Explorations of Film and Television Viewing: Ordinary Audience (Studies in the Psychosocial)

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. vii Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Puzzling Viewing 1 Favourites, TV and Home: Psychosocial Perspectives 2 Psychosocial Methods and Audience Research 3 Spending Too Much Time Watching TV? 4 Favourite Things: Objects in the Life of a Castaway 5 Mothers, Sons, Siblings and the Imaginative World of Working-Class Women's Viewing 6 Risky Viewing and Risky Method?: Psychoanalysis, Method and Defended Viewing Conclusion: Viewing Is Psychosocial Notes References Index viii ## Acknowledgements There are a number of people who must be thanked for their help and support as without them this project would not have been completed. To Andy Hart, without your endless stream of cups of tea and snacks and willingness to pitch in with absolutely anything that needed doing, I would never have been able to finish this. To my wonderful sons Isaac and Albert, thanks for your patience and support, hugs, neck rubs, cups of redbush tea, making me laugh and just generally being super boys. ## Sorry you have not had a dining table for months. There are a number of friends and colleagues who have read drafts and given comments at various stages. I am particularly grateful to Richard Johnson whose comments and support have been really helpful. Thanks to dear friends for help and support above and beyond the call of duty, in particular Diane Taylor, Stuart Price, Tim O'Sullivan, Stuart Hanson (whose humour lifts me every day), Helen Wood, Margaret Montgomerie and Vic Blake. I also need to thank two great PhD students for their practical help; Claire Sedgewick and Jilly Kay. Thanks also to Libby Forrest and Nicola Jones at Palgrave for your efficiency and patience and series editors Stephen Frosh and Wendy Hollway for your helpful comments. Most people have, at some point, experienced powerful, often strange and disconcerting, responses to films and television programmes of which they cannot always make sense. Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, this book argues that the seemingly mundane and everyday activity of film and television viewing in the home is in fact extraordinary. Most people have, at some point in their lives, experienced powerful, often strange and disconcerting, responses to films and television programmes of which they cannot always make sense. Psychosocial Explorations of Film and Television Viewing takes as its subject the seemingly mundane and everyday activity of watching television and films in the home, arguing that the affective and emotional experiences generated for audiences make this activity in fact extraordinary. Based on a fascinating empirical study of audiences' "favourite" films and television programmes, the book unravels the biographical and emotional intensity of viewing, from a psychosocial perspective. Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis including the work of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, Wilfred Bion and Christopher Bollas, and sociological theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, the book argues that viewing is a psychosocial activity which must consider the relationships and processes between "inner" and "outer" worlds. Important ideas from media audience research are revisited, to show that families and biographical experiences influence audience identification, interpretation and uses of television. The in-depth case studies show that whilst viewing can be pleasurable, in the conventional sense of enjoyment, it can also be anxiety-provoking and contradictory. Employing psychoanalytic methods for social and cultural research, this book is an important contribution to Media Studies, Film Studies, Cultural Studies and Psychosocial Studies Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction: Puzzling Viewing....Pages 1-24 Favourites, TV and Home: Psychosocial Perspectives....Pages 25-49 Psychosocial Methods and Audience Research....Pages 50-72 Spending Too Much Time Watching TV?....Pages 73-97 Favourite Things: Objects in the Life of a Castaway ....Pages 98-120 Mothers, Sons, Siblings and the Imaginative World of Working-Class Women’s Viewing....Pages 121-147 Risky Viewing and Risky Method?: Psychoanalysis, Method and Defended Viewing....Pages 148-165 Conclusion: Viewing Is Psychosocial....Pages 166-183 Back Matter....Pages 184-204