The Clown (20 19) is an independent film about clowns jointly developed by Warner and DC. The film not only explains the clown's name and life experience, but also describes in detail how the clown went from ordinary people to crime step by step. The release of The Clown won many awards in the United States and became the most profitable film in film history.
The role of clown is very popular all over the world. When The Clown was released in America, it caught LAPD's attention. Because there was a serious shooting at midnight in The Rise of the Dark Knight eight years ago, some people think that the violent content of the clown in it incited some people to kill people.
Buddha said: once you become a Buddha, you become a demon. Before becoming a demon, the clown was just an ordinary person who worked hard for his life. He doesn't want to be a Buddha, but he doesn't want to be a demon either. He just wants to live a normal life and be treated normally by others.
Let's analyze how Arthur the clown went from a personality mask to a crazy demon.
Personality mask is an aspect of personality, which is a person's psychological and behavioral performance in a certain period of time. When a person is often hurt, has no ability to resist, and has no chance to escape, the whole person is shrouded in pain and can only suppress his emotions in an all-round way. This is the so-called evil karma mask. There are two variants of bad karma: abandoned baby mask and victim mask, and Arthur the clown has both.
① abandoned baby mask
Arthur lived with his mother since childhood and lived a low-income life with the help of social welfare organizations. Arthur plays a clown and works hard just to live a good life with his mother. But her mother is obsessed with the man she once served-Thomas Wayne, hoping that he can help her and her son.
Arthur accidentally discovered that Thomas Wayne was the father in his mother's letter, and his anger and expectation kept pounding his heart. He found Thomas Wayne, hoping that his father and son would get to know each other, but he was refused to acknowledge the father-son relationship. The end result was that Thomas Wayne punched him and left, and Arthur was abandoned again.
Abandoned baby mask can be simply understood as the psychological characteristics of abandonment. Everyone has the experience of being abandoned, but the attack of abandoned baby mask may lead to serious psychological trauma.
Is Thomas Wayne Arthur's father? The film didn't give us a clear answer. Mother's statement is that they once fell in love and gave birth to Arthur. Thomas Wayne said that his mother was a mental patient, and she imagined everything. Even Arthur is adopted, and his mother's boyfriend has a domestic violence. A domestic violence caused Arthur to suffer a severe head injury when he was a child. This seems to explain why Arthur is also mentally ill. But then Arthur found a photo of his mother, which said, "I like your smile." -Thomas Wayne "also confirmed that they once loved each other.
No matter what the facts are, Arthur was abandoned since he was a child, and the abandoned baby mask was made from this. Arthur's life was abandoned, abandoned by his parents and society, which caused serious psychological trauma to Arthur, which was one of the reasons for Arthur's madness.
② victim mask
And Arthur's victim mask has been with him for almost his whole life. Arthur was insulted and beaten when he played the clown; I will be laughed at by my colleagues in the locker room; I thought my colleague gave him a gun to protect him, but he slandered him and lost his only job. Will be regarded as a freak at any time; Even make children laugh on the bus, and their mothers scold him for harassing them.
Why does Arthur have a strange disease and always laughs? In my opinion, Arthur's every laugh is a sign of his pain. He put on a clown mask for himself. No matter what happens at work or in life, he always smiles.
This is her mother's curse on him. His mother nicknamed him "Happy". On the surface, she wants him to be happy all the time. In fact, Arthur's inner pain and despair have nowhere to release, and can only be covered up with a smile.
The source of the curse is what Thomas wrote on the back of his mother's photo: "Love your smile. -Thomas Wayne ". This "smile" not only gave her infinite hope, but also limited Arthur's life with a smile. Arthur worked hard to perform comedy all his life, winning the favor and smile of his mother and audience, but he lived a tragedy. Arthur is only the victim of this tragedy, which is the second reason why Arthur is crazy.
Arthur said to his mother before he killed her, "You said that my uncontrollable laughter is a disease? Not at all. This is the real me. I have never been happy for a moment in my life. " This is the first time Arthur has admitted himself, and it is also the beginning of the collapse of his world.
At first, Arthur was always hurt physically and mentally, but he didn't want to resist. Because he still has his mother, he will continue to play the clown even if he is laughed at and beaten at work. This kind of injury, there is no chance to escape and the ability to resist, medically called learned helplessness, because resistance and escape still can't eliminate the pain.
When the whole person is shrouded in pain, he will be depressed emotionally. The most thorough and extreme repression is death. But Arthur still has a glimmer of hope for life, so he chose not death but flattery, hoping to get rid of the fate of the victim with the mask of flatterer.
There is a scene in the movie: on the bus, the child sitting in the front row of Arthur turns around and stares at him. Arthur did not hesitate to make faces to make the children laugh. Clowns are Arthur's profession, and making people laugh is Arthur's dream. His efforts attracted the resentment of the child's mother: "Will you stop harassing my child?"
Clown mask is essentially a flatterer mask, which relieves one's own pain by making others laugh. However, although trying to please is to get rid of the fate of being killed, the result may attract more serious harm, because your weakness will make others think you are easy to bully, so they will bully you at will.
Although the pistol that Arthur dropped while performing in the hospital was indeed given to him by his colleague, the boss did not believe Arthur's explanation. No matter how much Arthur begged for mercy, the boss resolutely fired him. There are only two things in Arthur's world: mother and work. Either way, Arthur's world will collapse. So Arthur, who lost his job, was beaten in the subway. He begged for mercy once, but he still couldn't avoid being hurt. He chose to resist and killed the attacker with a pistol.
When the flatterer mask can't relieve the inner pain, it will inevitably lead to the appearance of the aggressor mask. Arthur had to shoot the injurer, only to find that what he felt was not pain and shame, but happiness and liberation (dancing in the public toilet after killing). At this time, Arthur's mind has been recognized by the perpetrators, that is, from the victim to the avenger, tooth for tooth, blood for blood. Arthur's world collapsed from then on, put on the mask of the perpetrator and embarked on the road of crazy crime.
However, there is a clip in the movie that caused a heated debate among netizens: Did Arthur kill his black girlfriend? There is no doubt that all the sweet communication between Arthur and black women is just Arthur's fantasy. Without friendship and affection, Arthur longed for love to give life a little sweetness.
But in the end, Arthur found that everything was just his fantasy. He went to the black woman's apartment, stared at the black woman and shot her in the head with his hand (this action was made by the black woman when she first met Arthur). There was no murder in the movie, but when Arthur returned to his apartment, a police car rang nearby.
Although all the preparations seem to show that Arthur has gone further and further on the road of crime, it is very reasonable to kill a black woman who laughs at him. But through the whole movie, we can see that Arthur only killed those who really hurt him, and even his mother did indelible harm to him when he was a child (in her mother's mental illness record, she found that she had let her boyfriend abuse Arthur when he was a child, which led to Arthur's head being hit hard).
I don't think Arthur lost all his mind and killed a black woman who had only met once. He just used it to confirm whether his sweet past was just a fantasy.
There are three main relationships between masks: 1. Friendly, harmonious and unified; 2. Opposition, confrontation and conflict; 3. Alienation, division and depression.
Let's take Arthur the Clown as an example. When he is hurt, if the opinions of the mask of bad karma, the mask of flatterer and the mask of injurer are unified, he will make a rational decision: seek the shelter of the institution, give the injurer appropriate warning and resistance, and safeguard his rights and interests, which is a state of compromise; If there is opposition between masks, Arthur will hesitate, not knowing whether to endure the injury silently or resist the injurer, and it is difficult to make a decision; However, the relationship between Arthur's personality masks is in the third state-mask depression. In the early stage, Arthur suppressed the mask of invaders and silently endured the harm with the mask of bad karma. In the later period, the suppressed aggressor mask broke out in an all-round way, completely suppressing the mask of bad karma, and killing people who had hurt him wantonly and crazily with the mask of the aggressor.
The symbol of mental health is the integrity and unity of personality. Arthur the Clown's main psychological obstacle is that he has not constructed a personality mask that adapts to the society, and there is no unity between his own dominant masks. There was no proper resistance when he was hurt in the early stage, and the abuser agreed only when he couldn't stand it. The repressed abuser mask was no longer bound by society and morality.
For the treatment of mask depression, the integrated mask technology is usually adopted first, and then the personality mask adapted to society is constructed through mask reconstruction technology.
① mask integration
The first step of mask fusion is mutual understanding between masks. There are many ways to get to know each other, and the most effective way is psychological consultation, through which you can get to know your blind spots and gradually narrow them down. Of course, the real feedback between relatives and friends can also achieve the effect of understanding their own personality mask.
The second stage of mask fusion is mask seeking common ground and compromise. Psychology believes that the friendly unity of opinions between masks is a sign of mental health. As long as the similarities between masks are found, the masks can be integrated. Take Arthur for example. We don't want to get hurt, no matter the appearance of the mask of bad karma, the mask of flatterer or the mask of injurer. The compromise process is to "average" the mask, minimize the difference and take a step back. Resist appropriately when he is hurt, suppress appropriately when he has the impulse to kill, and finally seek a way to protect his rights and interests without killing.
② mask structure
Some people don't adapt to the surrounding environment and always behave inappropriately on some occasions. Because of the lack of corresponding masks, they use inappropriate masks, which creates an unfavorable situation for themselves. At this time, it is necessary to build a new mask. The easiest way to create a new mask is to imitate and practice.
A Dream of Red Mansions simply describes the dining ceremony of Lin Daiyu when she first arrived at Jia's home: "Daiyu saw that many things here were out of place at home, so she had to replace them one by one and brought tea. I saw someone holding mouthwash again, and Daiyu gargled her mouth in the same way. After washing my hands, I brought tea again. This is the tea I ate. "
Although the description is simple, it shows Lin Daiyu's adaptability to the new environment, imitates other people's behavior and etiquette, and avoids being in an embarrassing and out-of-place situation. Newcomers entering the workplace also need to observe and imitate colleagues' office etiquette in the shortest time and integrate into the workplace life as soon as possible. After observation, you will understand that entering a specific scene requires a specific mask, and the rest is practice. Life is like a play. When the fake play is really done, it gradually forms a personality mask that adapts to the environment, which can effectively stay away from pain and distress.
Arthur in the clown is no longer criminal genius with super high IQ, but a living person we can touch. He is just an ordinary person who wants to live an ordinary life but is troubled by psychological obstacles.
Don't kill people because they worship crimes, because the world has abandoned them and become a demon.
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