• Schedule
• Abstracts
• Campion Bibliography
• Campion Biography
• Contact UsLinksHome

Richard O'Neill-Dean

The Piano Taken as a Dream

This presentation considers Jane Campion's film The Piano (1993) as if it were a dream, being thought about from a psychoanalytic perspective. The presentation begins with a very brief synopsis of child developmental theory from a psychoanalytic point of view, particularly the move from a dyadic 'mother-infant' relationship to the triadic structuring of the Oedipal 'mother/father/child' world. Consideration is given to the sorts of difficulties that can beset this developmental movement and the arrests in development that can result. Attention is then turned to the film The Piano as if it were a dream structure presented to a psychoanalyst, and found to well illustrate such difficulties and their resolution. The mode of analysis is that derived from the study of myth, where repetitive elements, mythemes, are grouped together and considered in clusters in order to gain new insights into underlying significance. Within the arena of film analysis the idea of the existence of 'cinithemes' is put forward as a direct equivalent to mythemes in myth analysis. A single cinitheme is highlighted so that it can be seen clearly, to illustrate the concept. Subsequent cinithemes are ordered in such a way as to reveal an underlying 'latent content' portrayal of a developmental problem and its resolution. Such a view as the one taken here can add to the depth of appreciation of such an excellent film and lead to some surprising revelations on the way. Film clips are used extensively to illustrate this presentation and its central argument. Whether there is any justification for treating the film in this way, as if it were a dream, must be left to the audience to judge.

Biography

Richard C. O'Neill-Dean holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and Diploma of Clinical Psychotherapy (Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy) from the Irish School of Psychotherapy in conjunction with St Vincent's Training Hospital, Dublin and University College, Dublin, Masters of Medical Science Programme. He is a member of the Irish Psychoanalytic Association, a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist at Ashburn Clinic and in private practice at the Tara Suite, Marinoto Clinic, Dunedin.