[ecrea] Box Set Mindset: The Forensics of Popular Culture

In collaboration with the International Association of Forensic
Psychotherapy, Bournemouth University and the University of Roehampton,
Media and the Inner World presents:

*Box Set Mindset: The Forensics of Popular Culture*
*28th November 2015*
*9.30am – 6pm*
*The Wesley Hotel <http://www.thewesley.co.uk/>*
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*Tickets: £75 (£65 MiW/IAFP Members; £45 students with ID)*
*Book online at:
http://forensicpsychotherapy.com/events/47-the-box-set-mindset/event-details 

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Representations of crime and criminal behaviour have long been central
to the history of popular culture and now dominate the landscape of the
popular cultural imagination. From Arthur Conan Doyle’s /Sherlock
Holmes/ books through to Hollywood films such as /The Silence of the
Lambs /and television shows such as /Law and Order/, the forensic
dilemmas underpinning dramatic fiction have regularly fascinated
audiences. In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in
long-form television series that grapple with forensic dilemmas
involving gangster and mafia groups, murderers, drug barons and corrupt
political figures and organisations. Our fascination with these shows
has been intensified by technological shifts that allow us to
‘binge-watch’ box sets so that aspects of the experience of addiction
also arise in us as avid viewers and fans.

This one-day symposium brings together members of IAFP and the Media and
the Inner World research network to explore the psycho-cultural appeal
of well-known television dramas, in which the forensic themes of murder,
violence, and revenge play a key narrative role. Focusing on highly
successful television series such as /Forbrydelsen/The Killing, Breaking
Bad /and/ House of Cards, /this event will apply the expertise of
eminent forensic psychotherapists and senior academic researchers to
discuss why and how audiences relate to such programmes and their dark,
compelling themes and characters. The production of such drama is now
big business thanks to the box-set mindset it invokes, and it is
significant that forensic ideas often lie at the heart of the storylines.

What fantasies are at play when engaging with the psychopathologies of
crime on show in such programmes and what makes them such compulsive
viewing? What do these forensic themes and their dominance in popular
culture tell us about the psychodynamics of contemporary society and the
fantasies that circulate within it? How can an understanding of these
processes enhance the practice and theories of forensic psychotherapy
and also create a dialogue with academic researchers in the field of
media and cultural studies?


There will be sessions and workshops on /Forbrydelsen/The Killing/,
/Breaking Bad/, and /House of Cards/ and speakers include: Sandra Grant,
Andrea Esser, Caroline Bainbridge, Estela Welldon, Candida Yates and
Brett Kahr. There will also be a large group session conducted by Chris
Scanlon in the afternoon.




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*Caroline Bainbridge*
Professor of Culture and Psychoanalysis
Chair, Research Advisory Group
Editor, /Free Associations: Psychoanalysis and Culture, Media, Groups,
Politics/
Film Section Editor, /International Journal of Psychoanalysis/
Director, Media and the Inner World research network

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