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CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AND THE CINEMA
lations about 'fitting into' one's social group, choice of vocation, and so on. It is, also, a period when values and ideals are formed, and in this respect the cinema can be a powerful influence. By identification, widening of sympathy, and imitation, the adolescent learns to define his position in the wider world of the adult.
A period of conflict, then, is inevitable; but out of conflict arises construction — indeed, conflict is necessary for construction. What part does the cinema play in helping the adolescent resolve his difficulties — or does it offer him merely three hours of 'escape' from his problems?
The answer, as far as our group of girls is concerned, is clear when the films which they chose as their favourites, are considered. Three liked Gone with the Wind, three The Song of Bernadette, two Pygmalion, two My Friend Flicka, and two This Happy Breed. Other choices were Good-bye Mr. Chips, The Way Ahead, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Queen Victoria and Jane Eyre. Very broadly, these are all films with some kind of 'idea' behind them — only one girl, out of nineteen, chose a gangster picture about which, according to her description of it, she did not think at all!
This, we think, points unmistakably to the fact that 'middle-class' girls, at least, do not go to the cinema for 'dope'. It is true that these girls are only a small group, that they go to a progressive school, that, to judge by the essays, they receive encouragement from home to see the better type of film, and sometimes read the books, on which the films are based, beforehand. The criticisms are in many cases sensible, and the impression one gets from reading these nineteen essays is that this section of cinema-visiting adolescence will grow up into critical and informed adult cinema goers.
The question of the cinema as offering 'escape' has to be cleared up. A distinction has to be made between the psychological term 'escape mechanisms' and what is popularly known as 'escapism'. The former are defined by Arlitt1 in this way: 'There is a series of mechanisms by means of which the individual may endure the situations or ideas which have produced a feeling of insecurity, and yet feel secure. These mechanisms . . . enable the individual to escape from the true pictures buried in the subconscious, (although) it must be remembered that we also defend ourselves from unpleasant ideas and situations of which we are wholly conscious.' Some of the most usual of these processes are projection, rationalisation, displacement, compensation, and day-dreaming. Escapism, on the other hand, is a vague term, often applied to actual actions, 1 Arlitt, Adolescent Psychology, London, 1937, p. 67.
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