Television as psychical object: Mad Men and the value of psychoanalysis for television scholarship

TY - JOUR

T1 - Television as psychical object

T2 - Mad Men and the value of psychoanalysis for television scholarship

AU - Bainbridge, Caroline

PY - 2019/12/31

Y1 - 2019/12/31

N2 - Claims that Mad Men (2007-15) is an obedient postfeminist text overlook the drama’s images of both women and the history of feminism and its potential to impact on contemporary understandings of gender politics. Mad Men can be seen as a psychological object, helping viewers to explore links between their own experience and that of characters on screen as the narrative unfolds. Making links between the social re-emergence of feminist awareness, the drama’s representations of second wave feminism, and a psychoanalytic understanding of mourning, I suggest that that a return to psychoanalytic methodologies has the potential to enrich television scholarship.© 2019, SAGE. This is an author produced version of a paper published in CRITICAL STUDIES IN TELEVISION: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TELEVISION STUDIES uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

AB - Claims that Mad Men (2007-15) is an obedient postfeminist text overlook the drama’s images of both women and the history of feminism and its potential to impact on contemporary understandings of gender politics. Mad Men can be seen as a psychological object, helping viewers to explore links between their own experience and that of characters on screen as the narrative unfolds. Making links between the social re-emergence of feminist awareness, the drama’s representations of second wave feminism, and a psychoanalytic understanding of mourning, I suggest that that a return to psychoanalytic methodologies has the potential to enrich television scholarship.© 2019, SAGE. This is an author produced version of a paper published in CRITICAL STUDIES IN TELEVISION: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TELEVISION STUDIES uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

U2 - 10.1177/1749602019851714

DO - 10.1177/1749602019851714

M3 - Article

SN - 1749-6020

VL - 14

SP - 289

EP - 306

JO - Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies

JF - Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies

IS - 3

ER -