Favourites, TV and Home: Psychosocial Perspectives

Abstract

The previous chapter explained that this book will develop a new approach to audience studies and that this approach is distinctive in that it is psychosocial and psychoanalytically informed. I began the book with the assumption that all experience is psychosocial. However, in this chapter I am going to explore the specific psychosocial essence of favourites and show how watching television at home has intense psychosocial resonance. The opening pages also contained the assertion that psychoanalysis, and object relations theories in particular, can offer a fresh lens to illuminate the specific nature of psychosocial experience. Therefore, this chapter will explore some theoretical perspectives from psychoanalysis to illuminate the following themes, which also constitute the sections in the chapter, namely: favourites, within the context of object relations; biography and emotional experiences; the effect of technological developments in entertainment technology on attachments and relationships; and television and the home as affective psychosocial objects and spaces. I will begin with favourites.