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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fraught Pleasures: Domestic Trauma and Cinephilia in American Culture Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kn4p9v2 Author Sher, Ben Raphael Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Fraught Pleasures: Domestic Trauma and Cinephilia in American Culture A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television by Benjamin Raphael Sher 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Fraught Pleasures: Domestic Trauma and Cinephilia in American Culture by Benjamin Raphael Sher Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Kathleen A. McHugh, Chair This project examines different ways in which people have used their profound love of mainstream American films to process experiences of trauma that take place in and around the home (including abuse, neglect, abandonment, and bullying/violence related to identity). It argues that a love of film, known as cinephilia, may contain and be motivated by painful traces of trauma that create barriers to personal growth. At the same time, the fraught pleasures that lead a person to re-enact his or her traumas by, for example, obsessively watching films, though often regarded as destructive and counter-productive, may carry within them reparative, therapeutic tools. Popular fictional films and television shows repeatedly make connections between trauma, cinephilia, and criminality. These texts refer to widely accepted assumptions made by organizations, including the government and the educational system, that trauma survivors’ consumption of media relating to their devastating experiences will lead them to perpetuate ii traumas on others. This project counteracts such assumptions by examining less prominent evidence that presents trauma survivors’ cinephilia as therapeutic, including case studies by therapists who use popular films in treatment and autobiographical documentaries. This dissertation illuminates the experiences of filmmakers and audience members who are often relegated to the margins of mainstream and academic discourse. It argues that trauma survivors constitute an oppressed group, whose engagements with media warrant (but have not received) similar research to that focused on people of color, women, and LGBTQ people. Indeed, examining trauma survivors as a group reveals uncharted intersections among people of different colors, sexual orientations, genders, and nationalities. This dissertation creates a map of several uncharted relationships: Between trauma survivors and media; between the aesthetic, the personal, and the political; between different people who share similar profound challenges; and between popular entertainment and therapeutic action. iii The dissertation of Benjamin Raphael Sher is approved. Chon Noriega John Thornton Caldwell Janet Walker Kathleen A. McHugh, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv For my family. v Contents Acknowledgments ix Vita xiv Introduction A Relationship That Has Not Spoken Its Name 1 I. Trauma and cinephilia: theories of spectatorship with similar trajectories in the academy 8 II. The functions of post-traumatic cinephilia 32 Chapter One: Criminal Cinephilia and the Vicious Circles of Domestic Trauma 44 I. The historical trajectories of domestic trauma and cinephilia in mainstream American culture 49 A. The popularization of psychology after WWII 49 B. Crime and the dangers of media influence 54 C. The “discovery” of child abuse 62 D. Mental health practitioners’ exploration of media influence 64 II. Criminal Cinephilia in American Fictional Media, 1969-2007 68 A. Misguided heroes: Dragnet: DR-31 (1969) & Fade to Black (1980) 71 B. Home, video, horrors: Scream (1996), The Cable Guy (1996), & The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (2011) 102 III. Collective dissociation: American culture’s obsession with the cinematic as represser of ordinary domestic trauma 133 Chapter Two: Clinical Cinephilia: Cinema Therapy and Processing Domestic Trauma 148 I. Cinema therapy spectator positions and cinephilia 166 II. Prescription and case study based cinema therapy texts: a comparison 175 A) Selecting a film/object choices 178 B) Form vs. narrative in post-traumatic cinephilic cathection 184 vi III. A bridge between pathological cinephilia and reparative cinephilia: Cinema therapy and the horror film 200 Chapter Three: Seeing Differently: Domestic Trauma, Cinephilia, and Authorship 207 I. “All my life I had to fight”: trauma and cinephilia in Tyler Perry’s archive of feelings 213 A) The roles of trauma and cinephilia in Tyler Perry’s public persona 221 B) Tyler Perry’s cinephilic production 230 II. The fabulist: Lee Daniels 240 II. Cinephilia as unwanted compulsion: Odette Springer and Some Nudity Required (1998) 254 IV. “A life organized around film”: Jonathan Caouette and Tarnation (2004) 263 Conclusion 279 Bibliography 290 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It feels wonderful to think about all of the people who have helped me complete this dissertation, but it’s hard to find words to convey all that they have done for me and meant to me. I find myself tempted to just re-print the lyrics from Lulu’s song “To Sir, With Love,” because the song conveys the level of my gratitude. If any of the people on this list wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters, that would soar 1,000 feet high. However, I think it necessary to give more specific praise and thanks. It isn’t easy, but I’ll try. UCLA Graduate Division and the trustees of the Harold Leonard Fellowship funded my master’s degree at UCLA, allowing me to relocate to Los Angeles. The Kemp R. Niver Scholarship in Film History, The Plitt Southern Theater Employees Trust Fellowship, and a UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship crucially funded the final two years of the process, and helped me to reach the finish line. Julie Abraham and Malcolm Turvey, at Sarah Lawrence College, first inspired me to take the academic path. They’ve been advisors all along the way. I give my profound thanks to the entire faculty and staff of the Cinema and Media Studies program at UCLA, for picking me out of the crowd, giving me a department in which to fulfill so many personal and professional goals, and recommending me for the aforementioned awards. I owe certain individuals extra thanks. Vivian Sobchack encouraged me to take on unconventional topics and write about them unconventionally. She’s provided a great deal of encouragement and inspiration, and also asked the hard questions. Steve Ricci and Allyson Nadya Field offered ideal guidance as I formulated my dissertation prospectus in their Research Design courses, making a task that initially seemed insurmountable manageable and fun. My committee members, Chon Noriega and John Caldwell, took a lot of time sharing brilliant insights on my work, and impressing me with their vast realms viii of knowledge about everything. Chon helped me formulate the dissertation’s overall structure, and makes my day whenever I see him (especially now that I’ve learned how to match him joke- for-joke). Graduate Advisor Cheri Smith answered all of my questions about navigating graduate life at UCLA without ever losing patience. I thank her for her sense of humor, and also for discussing Dark Shadows with me. Brian Clark, the Cinema and Media Studies program’s Academic Analyst, has supported me tremendously, as he does everybody in our program. We widely acknowledge him as the glue that holds us together! Over many lunches and meetings, Department Chair William McDonald offered advice and various kinds of support when I was Teaching Assistant Coordinator for my program. He and Stephen Mamber also orchestrated my nomination for The UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, which gave me the cherished knowledge that my students benefitted from my teaching as much as I benefitted from knowing them. Indeed, I thank the students in my courses “LGBTQ Media Spectatorship” and “American Genre Films and Domestic Trauma” for sharing my passions, and for influencing many of the ideas in this project. I never imagined, when I “left everything behind” in New York to come to Los Angeles, the depths of the friendships that I would find here. I met my cohort first. I could not have jumped through all of the flaming hoops of graduate school without knowing that Bryan Hartzheim, Dennis Lo, Phil Wagner, and Julia Wright had my back. In particular, Mila Zuo and Samantha Sheppard have been like siblings. I’ve grown so much as a person and a scholar from knowing them, and from having the privilege of following the progress of their work. Chris Carloy and Sierra Wilson were my first constant companions and confidantes in Los Angeles and graduate school, and eased my transition immensely. One night in the study lounge of graduate student housing, I fell asleep reading Deleuze and woke up to meet my fellow New York ix expatriate, Virginia Woolf enthusiast, and soul mate Jacquelyn Ardam. I cannot imagine a better companion at the Algonquin round table of academia and life. My two-person coven with Morgan Woolsey has been like a century spent in Shangri La, an overnight stay at the best mom and pop video store, and the best academic conference ever all rolled into one. I cherish living and breathing movies, the 1970s, and feminism with Maya Montanez Smukler, but I’ve gained even more from her humor, kindness, and extraordinary wisdom. Thank you to Lindsay Giggey, Katy Peplin, and Allison McCracken for being girls like us. Lindsay, our many sushi dinners and yogurt trips have been like a beloved TV series. We will own it in its entirety. The much esteemed and beloved Ross Melnick entered my life as an extraordinary graduate student mentor/teacher, and ended up being a close friend (to whom I still go for advice all the time). At UCLA, I must also thank Jennifer Porst, Ben Sampson, Diana King, Mark Quigley, Jennifer Moorman, Jason Gendler, Daniel Steinhart, Clifford Hilo, Harrison Gish, Michael Kmet, Heather Collette-Vanderaa, Bryan Wuest, and Jose Salvador Gallegos.
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