This book explores the influence of psychoanalysis and psychology on the work of Sergei Eisenstein, one of the key directors of world cinema. By examining his biography and films within the context of 20th-century Russian history and culture, the author traces Eisenstein's intellectual connections with the era's leading thinkers, Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria.

Using the tools of psychology and psychoanalytic analysis, Angelini demonstrates that the director understood art as an anthropological project, built on the foundation of dialectical thinking. Particular attention is paid to the role of psychoanalytic theories of regression in the formation of Eisenstein's aesthetics, as well as the influence of Stalinism on the director's life and the development of psychoanalysis in the USSR.

This book will be of interest to film scholars, psychoanalysts, and anyone who studies the interactions between art, theory, and history.

Alberto Angelini (b. 1951) is an Italian psychoanalyst and psychologist. He has extensive experience in clinical practice and teaching. He graduated from the National Film School (CSC) and worked there as a research fellow. He taught psychology at the Sapienza University of Rome and is the author of numerous publications on psychoanalysis and film psychology.