Freud and Frozen: Using Film to Teach Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy can be challenging for the novice learner. Often concepts are abstract and nebulous. Basic curricula are needed to educate junior trainees before they engage in learning in the skills needed to be competent psychodynamic therapists. The use of film has been helpful in psychiatric education. The purpose of this paper is to show how one popular film, Frozen, can be used in providing a sound curriculum for junior trainees learning dynamic psychotherapy. Specifically, vignettes from Frozen will be provided to illustrate very specific concepts in dynamic psychotherapy. These vignettes illustrate classical psychoanalytic concepts. They also illustrate newer brief dynamic psychotherapeutic constructs. There will be a special focus on Davanloo’s Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (IS-TDP) and how Frozen illustrates a number of concepts featured in Davanloo’s metapsychology of the unconscious. Finally, Frozen teaching vignettes can be shown to be useful beyond the realm of dynamic psychotherapy education. Frozen portrays its two main characters as feisty, independent, and loving. This new portrayal of princesses as independent and loving sisters is a brave new step towards a more feminist ideology in the animated film genre.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychodynamic
• psychotherapy
• education
• film