What is it?

Cinelogy ( cinelogia ) is one of the educational instruments used in the Ontopsychological School . It is the analysis of the emotive dynamics that arise in the spectator watching the moving images in the projection of a film. Cinelogy is based precisely on the emotive reaction and the processes set in motion by the film, stressing that every individual has a form of selection that leads him to chose a certain kind of message rather than others.

Given this premise, the practice of Ontopsychological cinelogy constitutes an instrument to test and stimulate the spectators' critical capacities regarding the facts of existence. The analysis of the scenario depicted by the film shows whether the protagonists' actions are functional or dysfunctional, winning or losing (and why) with respect to their economic, political and existential success.

The starting point of cinelogy is that perception and knowledge are based on projection mechanisms : reality is one thing; but the way in which the observer perceives it depends mainly on his mental models. As a result, knowledge rarely coincides with objective reality, resulting in a lack of operative functionality for the subject.

Cinelogy enables spectators to gain awareness of their inner world and their emotions ; thus they find a criterion for self-evaluation.

How does it work?

• Screening of an appropriate film: its plot should depict a situation of life. The numbers of spectators can range from 5 to 200.

• After the film, each participant expresses his emotional experience and critical-existential reflections in relation to the film.

• A technically prepared psychologist, expert on Ontopsychology, proceeds to the analysis and verification of the functionality of the participants' emotions and thoughts. This third phase is what distinguishes cinelogy from cineforums or psychodrama.

Objectives and Effects

• Helping the subject to achieve an exact understanding of himself and consequently of the reality in which he lives. It educates him to be aware of his thoughts and choices, because these create his history.

• Encouraging critical reflection on many situations which are taken for granted, so as to provide an existential improvement and activate a practical intelligence, applied to the field in which the subject wants to exercise his leadership.

• The most readily observable effect of cinelogy is the participant's increased awareness of objective reality and critical maturity with respect to the role played by ideologies in the life of individuals and societies.

Reference texts

• A. Meneghetti, Cinelogia: Il cinema e l'inconscio
  (Cinelogy: cinema and the unconscious)
  Psicologica Editrice, 1999.
• A. Meneghetti, Manuale di Ontopsicologia (Ontopsychology handbook)
  Psicologica Editrice, 2003.
• A. Meneghetti, Residence a Mosca (Residence in Moscow)
  Psicologica Editrice, 1995.
• A. Meneghetti, Prontuario immagogico (Imagogic handbook)
  Psicologica Editrice, 2003.