The Application Of Movie In Psychotherapy

In psychological counseling and treatment, the counselor often discusses one or more movies with the clients to help him to enlighten the unconsciousness complex and to acquire a new insight. In China, there have been some movie application researches in group counseling, however, they are not systematic and are lack of theoretical construction.By way of literature review and empirical studies, we make a study of the theoretical construction of the movie therapy and check its validity. It is composed of three parts: Part I, the literature rivew; Part II, the theoretical construction; Part III, the empirical study.In the first part, we analyse different theories of movie therapy, including dream interpretation, hypnosis, emotion, cognition, existential psychotherapy and Chinese classical aesthetics, etc. We also discuss the influence of movie therapy on psychic mechanism of each client on the basis of theory deduction.(1) movies construct the psychological field of counseling and psychotherapy.(2) movies could influence the condition of clients' physiology and emotion. (3) clients' unconscious complexes are the projections of their own comprehensions of movies (4)clients' identification of roles in the movies (5) movies explain the way of life in the form of fable.In the second part, we discuss the system construction of movie therapy. Firstly, we define the basic concepts of movie, psychotherapy, movie therapy, etc. Then we raise the basic operation model of movie therapy, with emphasis on the five principles of movie selection (1) value (2) empathy (3) realm (4) timeliness (5) systematic desensitization. Finally, we analyse the specific application of basic techniques of counseling in movie therapy.In the third part, the experimentation includes group therapy of college students and personnel in custody and a case of school inadaptability of a new college student. The result of the group therapy of college students shows that movie therapy helps to change their cognition, to obtain active emotional experience, to improve the level of psychological health, and to impose happiness. The result of the group therapy of personnel in custody shows that the level of depression decreases and the level of self-esteem increases. The recall of the individual case indicates that counseling, to some extent, is effective and the major symptom is alleviated.The application of movie therapy in counseling and psychotherapy is strongly feasible and effective. It is worthwhile further exploration and popularization.