Tarkovsky's Lessons: About Psychoanalysis.

Great russian direcor Andrei Tarkovsky did not highly praise use of psychoanalysis methods in movie, despite fact that he considered that director should understand psychology of people.

In one of his interviews Tarkovsky stated that memories of childhood never made anybody an artists. He also criticized us of psychoanalysis methods in movie.

"Манера психоаналитиков смотреть на жизнь сквозь детство, находить в нем

объяснения всему — это один из способов инфантилизации личности. Недавно я получил крайне странное письмо от одного знаменитого психоаналитика, который пытается объяснить мне мое творчество методами психоанализа. Подход, к художественному процессу, к творчеству с этой точки зрения, если хотите, даже удручает. Удручает потому, что мотивы и суть

творчества гораздо сложнее, намного неуловимее, чем просто воспоминания о детстве и его объяснения. Я считаю, что психоаналитические истолкования искусства слишком упрощенны, даже примитивны."

"Manner of psychoanalyst to see the life through the childhood, finding reasons for everything - is one of the way of infantilization of personality. Some time ago I recieved a very strange letter from one famous psychoanalyst, who tries to explain my creation to me with methods of psychoanalysis. Reproach to artistic process, to creation from this point of view, if you want, even makes feel said. It does so because motives and essence of creation are much more compicated, much more uncatchable, than just memories of childhood and its interpretation. I consider that psychoanalitic interpretations of art are too simplified, even primitive."

But in his lections Tarkovsky also said about necessity of understanding human psychology.

Кино требует и от режиссера, и от сценариста колоссальных знаний о человеке и скрупулезной точности этих знаний в каждом отдельном случае, и в этом смысле автор фильма должен быть родствен не только специалисту-психологу, но и специалисту-психиатру.

"Movie asks from both director and screenplay writer having colossal knowledge about human with scrupulous exactness of this knowledge in every given case, and in this sence author of film should be relative not only to psychologist, but also to psychiatrist."

In another lecture he says about his expierence of using methods psychoanalysis. Tarkovsky said that he was seeing the same dream about place where he was born. And he tried to release from heavy and nostalgic feelings trying to understand the reason as it is written in books of Proust and Freud. But it only get worse. He really lost this feeling, but at the same time he felt he lost something meaningful.

Действительно, я освободился от этих впечатлений, но эта психотерапия оказалась хуже причины ее необходимости. Когда я потерял эти ощущения, то мне показалось, что я и себя в каком-то смысле потерял. Все осложнилось. Чувства эти пропали, а вместо них не образовалось ничего.

"In deed, I got free from this impressions, but this psychotherapy appeared to be worse than reason of its necessity. When I lost this feelings, It seemed to me that I lost myself in some meaning. everything become more complicated. Feelings were gone, and nothing appeared on their place."