Alliance Française du Manitoba

Public lecture by Mr. Serge Tisseron

“Children under influence… The impact of violent images, and methods of prevention”

Monday, February 8^th - 12:00 pm
Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface
Academic Room - 1531
(200 de la Cathédrale Avenue - Saint-Boniface)

Free entrance

A snack will be offer before the Wednesday, February 24th lecture at the CUSB
Lecture in French

Mr. Serge Tisseron

Coming from a modest background, Serge Tisseron has always taken to heart “subculture” such as comics, graffiti or TV series, and has used simple terms that can be understood by all - this enabled him to write several bestsellers.

He currently has some thirty books published, including two award-winners (the Television Book Prize in 2002 for his book L’intimité surexposée and Stassart Prize of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 2003 for his book Le bienfait des images) and has contributed to fifty collective works. Government departments regularly consult him when researching the effects of violent images on youth.

After receiving a BA in philosophy, he attended the Ecole Normale Superieure (literature section), where he discovered the surrealist poets, and decided to become a psychiatrist. From 1978 to 1997, Serge Tisseron acts first as a hospital psychiatrist, and then as psychology teacher at the University of Paris VII. He is currently Research Director at Paris X-Nanterre.

His name became known when he uncovered a Hergé family secret, simply by studying the Tintin books, several years before that author’s biography was published, and the secret confirmed (Tintin chez le psychanalyste, 1985). Serge Tisseron published the French first book entirely devoted to shame (La Honte, psychanalyse d’un lien social, 1994), and was one of the first to analyze the pathogenic effects of secrets on multiple generations (Secrets de famille, mode d’emploi, 1996).

At the time when psychoanalysis ignored comic books and film, and where semiologists were only interested in the construction of images, Serge Tisseron also laid the foundations for a theory of reception, which put significant emphasis on the body (Psychanalyse de l’image, des premiers traits au virtuel, 1995). Then he addressed the special relationship we establish with comic books, photography (Le Mystère de la chambre claire, 1995), television (L’intimité surexposée, 2001, which tackles reality TV), film (Comment Hitchcock m’a guéri, 2003), and computer monitors (Virtuel, mon amour, 2008).

Lecture

“Children under Influence … the impact of violent images, and methods of prevention”

While violent images are defined by their objective content, the violence of images concerns their power to manhandle the viewer at a given time, whatever the reason: violent image content, awakening of personal trauma, stressful or confusing arrangement.

Faced with images that do us violence, each of us (adult or child) tries to redefine his or her personal landmarks by three complementary methods: with language, by the construction of one’s own images (mental or physical), and with sensory-motor skills, especially among children. These techniques enable us to step back from what was felt, thought and imagined. In each case, they require the presence of a third party.

In case of failure, the viewer reacts in one of three different ways, depending on his or her history and environment: some find in the violent images a justification for their own use of violence to resolve problems in their own lives, others fear becoming victims, and still others develop constructive, rebuilding reflexes.

The violent audio-visual landscape does not create these profiles, but it enflames them. It does not make young people more violent, but pushed each of their psychological profiles to the extreme, leaving them always believing themselves aggressor, victim or the one to right wrongs. Thus this landscape contributes to increased violence, especially in schools.

Prevention is possible. It involves parents and educators, but also the organization of role-plays in schools by teachers, for the youngest children.Experience shows that this allows them to separate themselves from the role of aggressor or victim, in which too many of them cast themselves, earlier and earlier on.

Serge Tisseron links:

http://www.canalacademie.com/La-television-alimente-t-elle-l.html?var_recherche=Serge%20Tisseron
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/01/06/serge-tisseron-l-addiction-aux-jeux-video-est-rare_1138448_651865.html
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/12/TISSERON/15959
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conso/2008/03/22/05007-20080322ARTFIG00030-serge-tisseron-le-rendez-vous-des-bienfaiteurs-et-des-gogos.ph