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This thesis explores the question: Why does improvisational comedy make people feel free? By drawing on psychoanalysis, in dialogue with comedy studies and Marxist political economy, the thesis surveys the structure of improvisational comedy and discovers the productive tension that exists between freedom and constraints. The thesis charts the psychoanalytic approaches to freedom in order to problematise the signifier "freedom". It argues that the sense of freedom that improvisers, or "players", experience in improv arises from a range of factors. Drawing on Lacanian approaches to language, the thesis argues that the indeterminacy of language and the functions of metaphor and metonymy are central to the generation of incongruous meaning and comic effects. It maintains that improv allows for making "impossible choices", acts that set players apart from everyday life. It suggests that the retroactive fixing and refixing of meaning of signifiers creates an unusual temporality of meanings. The "event-like" structure of improv is a significant factor in allowing both players and audience to experience a measure of freedom in the improvising space. Furthermore, the thesis argues that incongruity is a motor of the comic in improv and is generated by ambiguities in language and the retroactive transformation of meanings that improv encourages. Laughter in improv is ambivalent - it can both guide and ratify the realities created by improvisors, but also mock them, or reward one over others, thus interrupting the imaginary unity of the improvising group. It further argues that the real limits of freedom in improv lie outside the improv space in the logic of capital accumulation which has commodified improv and transformed it into an industry. The thesis suggests that overcoming this limit will require lessons that can be learned from improv, in terms of making impossible choices and improvising new worlds.

Who are we? Why do we do the things we do? These questions are constantly under scrutiny, forever unable to provide us with adequate answers, it seems. Yet, with the continuing rise in popularity of digital media, we are able to situate these questions in a different sphere and see aspects of the self that we were unable to perceive before. Digital media forms have provided us with the capacity to explore whole new worlds, as well as allowing for new and innovative methods of communication. These changes make a huge impact on the daily lives of individuals. This thesis presents a theoretical contribution to both psychoanalytic thinking and to the rapidly expanding field of games studies, with especial reference to avatar-based games. It considers the status of the bond formed between the individual at play (known here as the ‘user’) and the game itself. Furthermore, it presents this as a model which identifies the user’s relation to the game dynamic through an understanding of the key components of a video game, including aspects such as the control mechanism. Elements which cross the boundary between the user/game realities are also considered with relation to hyperreality, thus forming a more complete imagining of this framework. This also allows for an application of this dynamic to what we define as violent (and associated) acts within games. In turn, this allows for a more complete understanding of the game situation, and can be applied to our understanding of the user as well. This thesis provides a standalone framework which can also be utilised in other types of investigation in future.

This text seeks to provide an account of the subject as a consumer of mass-media. As such, the contemporary consumer must interact with corporate entities as socio-cultural institutions that enable a self-administration of gratification. The case under discussion is that of the Walt Disney Company, which is perhaps the most iconic purveyor of consumable media in the world. It is argued that the Walt Disney Company is structurally perverse, that the gratification of the Disney consumer is achieved at their expense, and that this expense is to the benefit of Disney commercially and structurally as a major socio-cultural institution. This text makes use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, film and cultural studies, and the industrial-organisational history of the Walt Disney Company to create an account of the subject's interactions within the apparatus of Disney media. The account of consumerism constructed within this text is organised by a synthesis of several theoretical constructs: the animated homunculus, the regressive cinematic apparatus and the Disney consumerist utopia. The homunculus refers to a point of contact for the subject's gratification. It is a fetishistic device used in animated films to create a focal point for the viewer's desire and identifications. This operates within the subject's relation to the screen as apparatus, which in the case of Disney is demonstrated to be regressive in its narrative structure and stylistic content. The regressive pleasures of Disney media support a system and economy of gratification that crystallizes in Disney as a commercial entity. The ideological and structural core of the Disney entity is demonstrated to be a utopian vision of consumerism and self-administration of gratification. The creation of socio-cultural structures that enable the subject to self-administrate their gratification is shown to be related to the problem of addiction; a dependency on consumables and consumption itself. Together these concepts create a holistic account of Disney as an object of study, as both commercial entity, visual medium and cultural institution.