How the world of psychological horror movies changed after the release of The Witch
It was 1976, and the movie Psycho was in the making.
The story of a serial killer whose victims are locked up in creepy psychiatric institutions and subjected to an array of bizarre rituals and practices is a classic in psychological horror.
But the film was not just a hit, it was also a critical success.
In the following decade, the world was captivated by the eerie world of psychoanalysis, and films such as Psycho, The Omen and others became cultural touchstones.
But this was no coincidence.
A decade after Psycho was released, the UK's first film school psychology textbook was released.
It contained a section on psychoanalysis and included a brief guide to the film.
It was a momentous development in psychology as students began to take a more active role in research, in classrooms and in films.
"Psycho" and other films on the subject began to influence students, as did the work of the psychoanalysts who pioneered the field in the 1940s and 1950s.
"In Psycho we see that psychoanalysis is not just about the theory," says Richard Wainwright, professor of psychology at the University of Birmingham.
"It is about the practice."
What is psychoanalysis?
There are four major sub-fields of psychology.
The first, psychological research, examines how the mind works and what causes it to behave in the way we do.
It also deals with what makes us vulnerable to trauma and how it can be managed.
The second is the study of the brain, which deals with how the brain works and how we interpret our experiences.
The third is the treatment of illness and disease, which focuses on how to cope with our illness.
The fourth is the development of theories and treatments for psychological problems.
Psycho and its sequels were the genre's greatest hits.
"You can't make a movie about a serial killing without having a scene of him in the psychiatric hospital," says Professor Wainwood.
"There's no point in making a movie like that about a man who's locked up because of a psychiatric diagnosis of mental disorder."
But what is psychoanalytic research?
In a nutshell, psychoanalysis deals with the way our minds function, how they think and how they behave.
"Our brains work in the same way," explains Professor Wainswell.
"So we have a way of thinking that is linked to our perception of reality, and then we have another part of our brain that is also connected to our experience." "
"Our brain is not simply a big plastic box that you can put anything in and then have it turn out like a book." "
So we have a way of thinking that is linked to our perception of reality, and then we have another part of our brain that is also connected to our experience."
"Our brain is not simply a big plastic box that you can put anything in and then have it turn out like a book."
How is psychopsychology studied?
Psychoanalytic theory, or psychotherapy, is based on psychoanalytical theory.
This means that it uses psychology to try to understand the ways in which the mind operates.
In psychology, this means looking at how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are related to the way the mind functions.
These ideas can be applied to many areas of life, from how we feel, to what we think, to how we think about the world around us.
For example, how our emotions affect our health, how we judge others, how much we think we know about ourselves and how well we think our feelings are reflected in our actions.
Psychoanalysis also deals in a different way to psychoanalysis.
"We don't just look at the individual processes, but the whole system of how the individual system works," says Prof Wainw, "that's what we do in the study."
Psychoanalyst Richard Wainsway (centre) with his wife, Elizabeth (right), in the lobby of the Psychoanalysing Clinic in Brighton, in the 1970s.
Photo: Alamy The process of psychoanalysating a person In the early 1960s, a British psychoanalyst named Richard Wainer began working in a psychiatric hospital in London.
The patient was a woman named Louise, who suffered from anxiety and had a difficult life.
Louise was being held for the first time at a psychiatric institution, and was unable to leave her hospital bed.
"She was very sad and distressed," remembers Prof Wainer.
"This is a patient who had a really traumatic childhood.
It had been a period of severe deprivation, and Louise had had a very traumatic upbringing."
Professor Wainer found that Louise was suffering from anxiety, but this was caused by an illness.
"But what caused this was the illness," he says.
"And when the illness was severe, the anxiety developed into panic disorder."
This is when Louise developed an obsession with an unseen figure, and began to feel trapped.
"Louise was distressed," says Wainer, "and it became clear that this person was not the person she had known."
"It was like a ghost that was stalking her."
Louise's obsession was a
When we get our DNA, how do we know we're not a hybrid?
How to improve the operational definition of the psychology job