Black Film Through a Psychodynamic Lens

Presented by: Katherine Marshall Woods,PsyD
Discussants: Sarah Hedlund, PhD and Youyang Wang, MA

Date: September 20, 2025

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET

Where: Via Zoom
No CME/CE

Registration Link: CLICK HERE

Register by September 17, 2025, at 4:30 pm

Description:

Black Film Through a Psychodynamic Lens delves into the nuanced character
development and narrative themes within the struggles and successes presented in
Black films over the last five decades.

In this pioneering book, Katherine Marshall Woods looks at Black cinema from a
psychological and psychoanalytic perspective. Focusing on a decade at a time, she
charts the development of representation and creative output from the 1980s to the
present day. She deftly moves from analyzing depictions of poverty and triumphs to
highlighting the importance of cinema in shaping cultural identity while considering
racial prejudice and discrimination. Adopting theoretical viewpoints from Freud to bell
hooks, Marshall Woods examines the damaging effect on cultural psychology as a
result of stereotypical racial tropes, and expertly demonstrates the healing that can be
found when one sees oneself represented in an honest light in popular art.

From Do The Right Thing, The Color Purple and Malcolm X to contemporary classics
like 12 Years a Slave, Black Panther and American Fiction, this book is an essential
read for those interested in the intersection between Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Film
Theory and African American cultural identity.