Plot Interpretation: a hobby for all ages

While waiting to my office's Xp installation to be repaired I'd like to talk you about a little hobby I've developed recently. It has been called "complicated" but in fact is not so, its very simple but it does require a little work.

Recently, I've been unable to watch a movie without interpreting its plot using Jung's individuation process as framework. You see, the Hero's Journey, the Alchemist's work and many other stories are used by Jung (and Campbell, and many professional writers such as George Lucas) to explain psychological processes, in fact, his great work was to link the stories the civilization has used to explain its origins and current situation with the workings of the human psyche and develop a frame from where it can develop into and individual (ergo, individuation).

Actually, Lucas original trilogy (episodes IV to VI) is based on the Hero's Journey, that's one of the reasons you see a picture of Luke in the cover of Campbell's "Hero of a Thousand Faces". ;)

Now, in order to understand the framework, we need to define (in very simple terms) the different "parts" of the psyche under Jung's analytical psychology:

- The Self: the rational part of the Self. The mask we show everyday. It can be Introverted or Extroverted and its form out of four functions.
- The Shadow: the dark part of the self, all that you are NOT. Usually thought of being formed out of only the bad things, it also encompasses all the good things that the Self has not developed.
- The functions: Thought, Intuition, Feeling and Sensing. These four functions are arranged in the psyche in the following way:
- Primary Function: this one rules the Self and determines its main behaviour.
- Auxiliary Functions: Those that "support" the Primary Function, usually underdeveloped but conscious.
- Fourth Function: The undeveloped function, this acts from the unconscious and usually remains hidden from the Self.
- The Anima/Animus: This unifying (individuating) symbol functions as the agent of individuation, this looks to join both Self and Shadow, and develop the Fourth function in psyche. the symbol is usually represented as a Woman for Men (Anima) and as a Man for Women (Animus).

Now, the examples.

To put this in use, I'm going to use a good example, a bad one and a unusual one.

The good example:

40 year-old virgin is a good example of this framework, actually, I believe the author just ripped off Campbell's work or a "guide to write scripts" and added some jokes. Here's why:
The main character is a guy that has a problem he looks to solve (getting laid); he, as the hero, tries to redeem himself from this "abnormally" by going into a journey of meeting women. Now, there are two ways of looking at main characters, the first one being that they represent the Self and are surrounded by its functions, shadow and anima (the most common), the second one is when the main character is simultaneously the Self and the primary function (already integrated into the psyche). In this case, the main character represents only the Self, which accompanied by his functions: Senses (the African American guy, Primary), Feelings (the guy who've been recently dumped, auxiliary) and Intuition (the bearded guy, auxiliary). Finally, it's fourth function is Thought, which is barely represented by the Hindu and the owner of the shop, who as a group, ask the guy to "think" about the problem (getting laid) and "solve" it.

During the movie, each function-friend takes its turn in helping the virgin, going from material-sense initiatives (chest depilation, going to a bar, etc), through emotion-driven ones (speed dating and finding your ex) and wit-based ones (hitting at the bookstore girl). With the various complications, each function is integrated into the self: the African American guy find loves and stability with his wife through a child (he's was a serial cheater), the dumped guy finds his ex and deals with it (and makes the main character remember his own failings) and the witty guy acknowledges that his ways are wrong (as far as I remember right now).

Finally, anima presents itself in the form of the girl with the shop next door, who sells stuff on eBay. Throughout the movie the goal is to sleep with her, something accomplished after he resolves its issues with his Sense function (it's material side, the selling of his action figure collection) and integrates its (possibly, have to see it again) shadow in the form of the daughter of the woman character.

That was easy, things get complicated with the bad example.

Dodgeball is a perfect example of a plot that explicitly breaks this framework. But first of all, lets state that the ending you see on the theaters, where the average guys win, is not the originally intended one, instead, the average guys loose and Ben Stiller’s character laughs at them (see DVD version).

Seen from this perspective, this story can be interpreted in this way:

- Main character: Vaughn's character.
- Auxiliary functions: the mild-mannered African American, the angry guy and the geek; finally, there's the pirate.
- Fourth function: the nerdy male-cheerleader guy.
- Anima: the lawyer.
- Shadow: Ben Stiller's character and his posse.
- Psychopomp: Old Dogeball hero

The process here works as follows: Each member starts developing their skills on the dodgeball game (getting angry, dodging monkey wrenches, etc; while resolving their conflicts (marriage, girlfriends). We even get to see a new symbol, the psychopomp, who lead the characters' developments through the plot.

Finally, the plot ends in defeat. Although the fourth function in integrated (its plot is resolved) the shadow takes over the Self in the last moment (see Tarot Arcana: the Moon). Also, the pirate ends up missing, showing up latter as a "normal" person (a crappy character development), and the characters loose their axis mundi, their gym. Maybe is just that the plot sucks, maybe is just the representation of the failure to complete the individuation process, anyway, this is a bad example.

The unusual one.

As I already written before, scary movies, under this “method”, scary movies depict psyches with faulty functions like killers, psychopaths, esquizos, and other mental illnesses. In the case of the new version of the “Amityville Horror”, the story moves from the original supernatural horror show to the family integration process. The father is slowly possessed by his shadow (a violent, cold killer) and only through the integration of the rest of his functions (his wife, and his two kids, being himself the Self and primary function) through the weird workings of his anima (the ghost of the girl) they finally escape the house through the river (Neka, water as a symbol of the unconscious) althogether.

To end, I hope this helps a little when you read my “reviews” and allows you to understand better different plots, since as any intellectual activity, its created with the whole psyche.

KX.