About
Our project, ‘A mutual fascination: British horror and the psy disciplines c. 1955-present’ explores how the horror genre both understands and has been understood by psychologised discourse in British culture since the 1950s. We are looking at how professionals wrote and thought about the psychological effects of experiencing horror media as well as analysing how the genre has engaged with and represented the psy disciplines themselves.
Our period of study begins in 1955 because this is when the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act was passed. The Act banned the sale of American imported horror comics in the UK due to fears that they led to violent behaviour. Since that time horror media has been the subject of various moral panics with fears that it harms the psychological development of children or causes PTSD as well as concerns that it leads to instances of violence and suicide. News media has often fanned the flames of such psychologised approaches to horror with reports of people fainting during screenings of The Exorcist (1973) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) or of copycat crimes inspired by everything from A Clockwork Orange (1971) to Child’s Play 3 (1991).
While many perspectives from within the psy disciplines have seen horror as damaging, there is a strand of approaches that see the genre a having a positive psychological impact. For some, horror provides an opportunity for catharsis that enables those who engage with it to process trauma, fear and violent impulses. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, some studies have suggested that horror fans were better able to deal with the stress of the pandemic due to an increased resilience they had gained from consuming horror media (Scrivner et al 2020). Whether horror is toxic or a tonic, such psychologised theories have the authority of expertise and empirical study. Our research uncovers the ways in which such theories circulate and become widely accepted truths.
At the same time, the horror genre is not merely an object of study to be analysed by the psy disciplines, but an active participant in such discourses. Horror films, novels and comics actively engage with and represent the psy disciplines, borrowing key ideas, theories and settings from psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. British films such as Peeping Tom (1960), Repulsion (1965), Asylum (1972), and Tales That Witness Madness (1973) all deployed psychologised figures, settings and ideas while horror writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Patrick McGrath and Clive Barker frequently depict psychiatric care in their work. We look to these engagements and representations to understand the role these two cultural and social objects played in shaping one another as they both grew in significance.
