Discussion with Rebecca Seligman, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Health about self, agency, and desire.

Thursday, Feb 24, 2022 | 7:00 p.m.

Cross-cultural research reveals that dissociative experiences are ubiquitous around the world and may take both pathological and non-pathological forms. In the Euro-American context, dissociation is most commonly understood in pathological terms as a form of disordered experience.  At the same time, depictions of dissociative experiences (especially Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly MPD) abound in film and television—from Psycho and The Three Faces of Eve, to Primal Fear, Fight Club, and Split, to name just a few.  What makes dissociation so good to story with? Why has it enjoyed such continuous representation in popular narratives across time? We’ll examine different kinds of dissociative experiences and different models for understanding dissociation, and discuss what we can learn about cultural norms, values and desires—especially those related to selfhood, volition, and agency–by examining depictions of dissociation in cinematic narratives.

More about Professor Seligman at https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/seligman.html.