Ingmar Bergman and the Mental Effects of Protestantism – Some Viewpoints on his Autobiography ''Laterna Magica''
Ingmar Bergman and the Mental Effects of Protestantism – Some Viewpoints on his Autobiography ''Laterna Magica''

Summary/Abstract: Ingmar Bergman grew up with, in his own words, the “wretched kettle of fish” called Protestantism, under the influence of an authoritarian father who was a clergyman. How was he in a more concrete, on the daily existence focused way, influenced by this ambitiously Protestant background? A unique resource in understanding the more behavioural, personality-related aspects of the Protestant traces in Ingmar Bergman, is his autobiography ''Laterna Magica''. An example of this is the episode when he witnesses his father rectify a young clergyman. The father’s strict sense of discipline and duty, of carrying out one’s professional and moral obligations no matter what, is in perfect accordance with the image we get of Ingmar Bergman himself in his autobiography. Another theme that runs through Ingmar Bergman’s childhood memories in ''Laterna Magica'', is the guilt and terror of entering puberty, of discovering sexuality. The article elaborates these two and more aspects of ''Laterna Magica'', that point to the behavioural and mental ghost of Protestantism, which seems to have haunted Ingmar Bergman all through his life, however with effects that came to have both constructive, productive consequences on his life and work, as well as destructive and negative ones.

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