THINKING CINEMA. THE NARRATIVE OF FILMS AND TV SERIES AS A METHODOLOGICAL MATRIX FOR THE TREATMENT OF COMPLEX PROBLEMS

Abstract

In this article, we present the advances of the University of Buenos Aires research project that seeks to clarify the inquiry about the articulation between Cinema and Psychology, putting forward the formalization of a research methodology in psychology based on audiovisual format. Our starting point coincides with French philosopher Alain Badiou’s key principle, as he proposes "thinking cinema", that is, not only analyzing the concepts associated with the cinematographic device, but rather thinking about the concepts through cinema. First, we present a conceptual inquiry into the state of art on the three major fields of studies on cinema that are unavoidable antecedents to be able to study the subject thoroughly: traditional studies on cinema in relation to the historization of its technical possibilities and its artistic manifestations , the different film genres, and the technical-stylistic resources used; the study of narrativity, that is, the aspects linked to the story and the argumentation that is developed in the narrative structure of the film or the series; and the use of cinema as a didactic tool, considering different films as "examples" and as conceptual applications of social discourse in the film field. Secondly, we propose to go a step further, integrating the three currents mentioned above and including a supplementary movement based on the reading of Deleuze and Badiou: considering cinema as a conceptual access to complex problems in the field of subjectivity. This implies that cinema allows the structuring of new methodological models of understanding or even the creation of complex problems within the framework of psychology, keeping both the deliberation about concepts and the aesthetic and artistic experience of audiovisual narrative in balance.