Mental Defenses in Inception

            In English this week we’ve been discussing Freudian psychology. In particular, we’ve looked at the parts of the mind and the ways people cope with problems. During this unit, I’ve noticed that many of the characters in the works we’ve looked at so far have used some of the defense mechanisms that we’ve looked at. Inception in particular included several characters using defense mechanisms to avoid their real problems. For instance, after coming back from limbo, Mol experiences denial when she denies that reality is real because she believes she is still in a dream. She eventually kills herself, resulting in Cobb feeling immense guilt. Cobb deals with this guilt by trying to repress his memories with Mol so he won’t have to do this anymore. He does this in a rather unorthodox way- trying to create a prison in a dream for all of the memories he shared with Mol. This doesn’t really work, as Mol still appears in his dreams and sabotages his missions. Cobb eventually gets over this through acceptance; he accepts that Mol’s mind was heavily damaged by her travels with him through the various dream levels, and as a result she was not the same when they returned to reality. Cobb did the best he could, but in the end she could not differentiate between dreams and reality, and as a result she took her own life. He accepts this, which frees his mind and rids his dreams from her presence.

            Robert Fischer in Inception also has some mental troubles that he uses defense mechanisms to hide. He has deep issues from his childhood and his father’s lack of a presence, and his lonely childhood remains a weak spot in his mind from when he was young. As they go into his mind, his subconscious tries to fight them, symbolic of how Fischer’s subconscious tried to bury his memories surrounding his father and his business. Fischer employed repression, like Cobb, to forget the troubled memories that he shared with his father. The scene where Cobb and Fischer are together in the bathroom and Cobb is trying to get Fischer to remember one dream level above is symbolic of how Cobb is trying to get Fischer to remember his childhood memories involving his father. At the end, Fischer comes to terms with his father’s poor parenting, and turns to mercy; feeling bad for his father’s inability to feel for other people.

Inception and Modernism

            In English this week we have been watching Inception and looking at how it embodies many modernist attributes. For starters, the dreams they are in feature persepectivism, for the architect puts their own spin on the dream world they build. Also, all of the dreamers who share the dream bring their subconscious into the dream through their projections. In Cobb’s case, Mol hangs heavy on his subconscious, and as a result she comes into any dream that he is a part of. In the dreams, Mol tries to ruin everything, which is symbolic of her role in Cobb’s life in the real world; she ruins everything by killing herself and blaming Cobb for it. Not only does this take herself from Cobb, it also makes it so Cobb cannot stay with their kids.

            Disillusionment also plays a large role throughout the film. When a dreamer who is not well-versed in the dream world is told that they are in a dream, the dream begins to collapse in on itself. This is an epiphany for them, when the wonderful dream world around them comes crumbling down, with them crashing back to reality where they cannot surpass regular human limitations. Also, when someone wakes up from limbo, they can experience disillusionment. The real world is a disappointment for them after having uncontrolled power and giving it up to return to reality. The realization that reality is not as great after an epiphany (realization that dream world can be much better) is a key theme of modernism, and is a major plot point in the film Inception. This link, among others, is why Inception is such a great example of a piece that embodies modernism.

Summer Reading

            This past week in English class we looked over our summer reading books and the ideas and themes within them. We examined Tender is the Night, and compared and contrasted Nicole and Rosemary, who serve as foils to each other. Rosemary represents innocence and purity, while Nicole represents the opposite; ruined sexuality, for she was molested by her father at a young age. Rosemary’s purity is shown through her attempts of trying to get with Dick, for she never makes a strong approach. Instead, she tells him how she feels and bats her eyelids in an attempt to woo him. This does eventually work, but takes a while as Nicole has a strong hold over Dick. Nicole being “broken” in a sense gives Dick a purpose in their relationship- trying to fix her. Rosemary, on the contrary, is not “broken,” and does not need Dick’s help. This gives her much less control and persuasion over Dick, as she offers no significant challenge for him. Once Nicole recovers completely and leaves Dick for cheating on her, Dick has nowhere to go, for he has nobody he can be in a relationship with who needs his help and guidance.

            We also examined The Bell Jar, and how it reflects the life of Sylvia Plath, both events that happened before and after she published the novel. Like Esther, Sylvia attended a prestigious college and was an excellent student. The two also both suffered from depression during their life, which became overwhelming during an internship in New York City one summer. This internship created a lot of stress for them, which they were not able to cope with effectively because of their depression. They eventually tried to kill themselves, and were put into a mental hospital to help them overcome their depression. They worked through their problems at the mental institution, and were eventually released. While there, they received Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), which was supposed to help “reset” the mind in order to cure depression. For both of them this proved mainly ineffective, and served as only an aggravation. Sylvia did fall for a man named Ted, much like how Esther fell for Buddy. After the novel was published, Ted left Sylvia for Assia Weeble, the wife in a couple who rented Sylvia and Ted’s apartment. In the end, Assia and Sylvia killed themselves, similar to how Esther and Joan attempt (with Joan succeeding) to take their own lives during the book. The Bell Jar provides interesting insight into the life of Sylvia Plath, and provides a peek into her mind and how it worked.