Psychic Capital (2009)

Synopsis

An experimental animation with original sound exploring “how identity development is informed (and sometimes controlled) by psychiatry’s relationship with capitalism and its broader political objectives.” The video focuses on three themes: the history of psychiatry and its relationship to capitalism/consumerism in North America, the MKULTRA experiments in Montreal during the Cold War, and how the self-help movement depoliticized leftist movements after 1960s.The video combines MacCormack’s own research inspired by the work of British documentarian Alan Curtis, whose The Century of the Self (2002, 240 minutes) is one of many texts and influences apparent in this sweeping work.