I’m a Cyborg but that’s ok
I’m a Cyborg but that’s ok | Park Chan-wook | 2006
Mireille Berton

Abstract

After reflecting on the representation of madness in cinema through the lenses of Freud (who, in the 1920s, denied cinema any possibility of translating the life of the unconscious) and Lacan (whose theories allow us to consider cinema as a “psychotic” device), this article proposes to analyze how I’m a Cyborg but I’m ok portrays schizophrenia. Deploying a rich range of means to depict psychotic delirium, the director and his team not only rely on conventional and worn-out methods but invent a formal vocabulary that is both realistic and fairy-like. Through the portrayal of a young girl whose delirium involves identifying herself as a machine requiring electrical power, this film provides a certain intelligibility of the functioning of the unconscious exposed by mental illness.

Keywords: cinema | madness | schizophrenia | Lacan (Jacques) | psychoanalysis | Park Chan-wook

This article is, for the time being, only available in Spanish: El inconsciente a cielo abierto: soy un Cyborg, pero está todo bien


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Volumen 14 | Nº 3

NOVEMBER 2024
November 2024 - February 2025

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