Comments on: Toward a Psychoanalytic Theory of Comics https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/ Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:15:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Hallie Hodenfield https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25363 Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:15:24 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25363 A robust return to psychoanalysis’ interdisciplinary roots is so essential right now, and the invitation to think and imagine visually so welcome. I know I will start to muse on lines in session, initially in terms of the ways they can both expand and further delineate notions of safety and un-safety. The wonderful Klee quote “A line is a dot that went for a walk” also prodded me into the idea of a period (or end of a sentence) as the beginning of a boundary, and all of the possibilities that implies for clinical (and personal) work. Thank you! So glad we are in this cohort together.

]]> By: Justine Duhr https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25362 Thu, 23 Dec 2021 03:40:28 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25362 Such an interesting post, Shelly, and lovely writing too. “The unconscious… lurks in the shadows and disappears when the lights go on.“ Well said! So true! I’d love some visuals to consider alongside your observations. Any suggestions for comics?

]]> By: Peggy Roalf https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25360 Mon, 06 Dec 2021 12:11:49 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25360 In reply to Marco Palli.

Marco, would you consider making comics as therapy?
Ivan Brunetti tells how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0YCZ_4XqiY

He says this book is for anyone “who wants to discover your own voice and tell your own stories.”

]]> By: Michelle Galanter https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25359 Mon, 06 Dec 2021 03:38:15 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25359 In reply to Angeliki Yiassemides.

Angeliki: Interesting to think about the verbal aspect. I know there was a popular aesthetic theory in the Renaissance that the highest form of art was a kind of piece that included an image with words because the combination was considered to cover all the psychic bases, so to speak.

]]> By: Michelle Galanter https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25358 Mon, 06 Dec 2021 03:31:13 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25358 In reply to James T. Kahn.

James, there are so many examples. I’ll keep you posted on a longer article I’m writing to address just that.

]]> By: Michelle Galanter https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25357 Mon, 06 Dec 2021 03:29:46 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25357 In reply to Peggy Roalf.

Thank you for your comments, Peggy. I really like how you put it—that cartoons creates a ‘place that can help a troubled mind find rest.’ I see so many other comics artists using the medium to express states of mind. What a sadness about Brunetti no longer making comics.

]]> By: Angeliki Yiassemides https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25356 Sun, 05 Dec 2021 07:09:03 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25356 These are profound insights into the link between comics, lines and psychoanalysis. I have never pondered on the nature of line and its depth until this relation was pointed out by Galanter. It is almost counter-intuitive: the simpler the form the clearer the connection with the unconscious; stripped of details it takes us back to the essence. I wonder how the comic’s verbal aspects relate to this. Is this something equally unique, because of the verbal economy that characterizes them?

]]> By: James T. Kahn https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25355 Sat, 04 Dec 2021 23:53:40 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25355 Wow! — I’m intrigued.
What are some of the many examples of comics that exert power on our subconscious, and how do they do it? That is what we need to explore next.

]]> By: Michelle Galanter https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25354 Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:00:31 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25354 Marco, I love to hear from artists on their experiences of drawings. You’re a sculptor, and so I’m wondering how you experience sculpture vs. line drawings?

]]> By: Peggy Roalf https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/blog-post/toward-a-psychoanalytic-theory-of-comics/#comment-25352 Sat, 04 Dec 2021 16:05:32 +0000 https://manhattanpsychoanalysis.com/?post_type=blog_post&p=19369#comment-25352 I happened on this article by chance and am pleased to find that it called attention to Ivan Brunetti, a cartoonist I’ve admired since seeing his retrospective at Society of Illustrators, maybe 12 years ago. So I’m writing to applaud Michelle Galanter on her synoptic and revealing commentary on the power of cartoons to create a kind of “place” that can help a troubled mind find some rest.
With that in mind I would also like to speak to another responder, Marco Palli, who appears to share Ms. Galanter’s thoughts on addressing an existential crisis. I would urge him to look deeply at Brunetti’s work to discover his unique talent and the toll that it has taken on his career and his life. I love—indeed I share—Brunetti’s gallows humor; however, he has included himself in his own pantheon of the undeserving. Brunetti’s self-described clinical depression has robbed him, and the world, of a rare form of genius, as he gave up being a cartoonist around 2006. I would also urge Mr. Palli to read Lynda Barry.
—Pegaseus, NYC

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