Psychology works to describe and explain the human mind – tricky because people are notoriously adept at internalizing and living up to what they believe themselves to be. Science fiction can act to unveil this conceit.  

The annual Searching the Psyche Through Cinema series returns this winter, spotlighting a selection of sci-fi films as it looks to illuminate our understanding of ourselves. Leading off: Blade Runner (1982, R, 117 min.). Director Ridley Scott takes viewers to a dystopian future – in the year 2019 – where Harrison Ford’s burned-out Los Angeles police detective Rick Deckard must hunt down and kill four fugitive "replicants" that have returned to Earth illegally from off-worlds. The movie is adapted from Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

A post-screening discussion is led by psychoanalyst Ryan Allison and screenwriter and educator Ayah Abdul-Rauf.

Presented in partnership with the Greater Kansas City and Topeka Psychoanalytic Center.