Self-Psychoanalyzing with Television Shows, Movies, and Novels: A Step Toward Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is an elusive thing. It is said that the lies we tell ourselves pale against the lies we tell others. A vast number of people never truly attain it before they die. Even when our prefrontal cortex reach the full maturity at the age of 25 or so, we would most likely lack the rationality to gain self-knowledge, mostly due to the fact that we are not taught how to gain it. Some prideful or insecure parts of us may pass self-judgment of excessive depreciation or appreciation. In which case, one does not have self-knowledge of at least an aspect of oneself. An example would be an arrogant man who think that he has a charming personality when he does not; his pride makes self-knowledge elusive. Another example would be an insecure girl having self-image issues when in fact she is beautiful enough to make a blind man fall in love and cure a madness. 

     In this post, I would like to propose a habit that may be of use in gaining self-knowledge. It is one I have employed for quite some time, and I believe that it has helped me quite a lot. I can say with confidence that I know myself vastly better than most people know themselves in my age group. The method involves a habit of watching [good] television shows and movies, and reading novels while projecting myself to the various characters, learning from the flaws they make and comparing the mistakes I have made in the past. I don't focus so much on their successes for the fear of my pride having the best of me. After all, successes in fictions are too heroic to be realistic. 

     The reason why this can be a legitimate method is that script writers and novelists perform psychoanalysis on their created characters. When they create their characters, they extract pieces of human behaviors from people they observed. After the character is created, a good creator would the character inside and out: For every action the character makes, the creator can name the internal motives and conflicts, reaching far beyond the conscious to the subconscious. These are exactly the things psychotherapists seek to find from their patients through psychoanalytic methods. The only difference is that the patients are real and the characters fictional. It is true that fictional characters cannot have the depth of an actual person, but do note that their psyche is extracted from the real world.

It should be noted clearly that any form of self-awareness exercises can backfire and can actually hurt one's self-esteem. For this reason, this exercise is grossly insufficient. The best way to gain self-knowledge is through the communal life. 

     Some psychologists may want to claim that psychoanalysis was birthed from Freud. Yet this is false. We see examples of psychoanalysis in ancient poets like Homer. When Homer pairs Aphrodite with Ares in a love affair, he is depicting how a female's erotic vanity and a male's war-like spirit oftentimes attract one another unlawfully. Do note that Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus. We can see the psychological profiles comparable to Aphrodite and Ares in our day quite easily in disordered relationships between overly passionate women and aggressive men, both parties lacking the rational capacity to control their emotions. Such psychoanalysis is likewise performed in playwrights such as Shakespeare.

     Modern day media is no different. One prime example I can think of is How I Met Your Mother. [SPOILER ALERT]. The writers knew from the beginning how the show was going to end: Ted and Robin get together... after 9 seasons. This ending changed the purpose of the show's narrative. 

     The writers from the beginning set up the characters' psychological profile meticulously. Ted is the kind of person that is capable of great passion; if he finds a woman, he would love her until the end. Robin, on the other hand, had father issues, lacking the love she required as a child. It becomes abundantly clear that the two's psychological profiles are matching. Ted's capacity to give passion has the potential to cure Robin's old wounds. The two go on dates in a romantic stride in first couple episodes, but Robin rejects Ted, becoming "friends." The show then begins a spiral of heartbreaks, both of them getting into one toxic relationship to another, mistakes optimistically disguised as "learning processes" for 9 whole seasons. What the narrative then becomes is a psychoanalytical commentary of a relationship between lack of self-knowledge and romantic derangement. Again, it is not hard to find people floating about without self-knowledge in the real world, matching at least in part the psychological profiles of Ted and Robin. (If, by any chance, you watched this show and thought that the friendship between the characters is a good one, it's not.)  

     I could name numerous examples of writers' psychoanalysis on their characters and how their analysis can, to a degree, reflect how the human mind works in real life. But I think I have made my point to give any more support. Now, how can I psychoanalyze myself by projecting myself onto the characters? 

     For example, let's say that a man is having a trouble with suppressing his anger against injustice. He see Batman in the Dark Knight going so far as to torturing the Joker to ask: [modify voice] "Where's Rachel? Where is she?" This is of course against the conventional ethics of Batman as portrayed in the comics. He realizes that this Batman created by Nolan is a hero with a deep-seated anger. Watching this, the man realizes that the motive behind Batman's anger and willingness to cross ethical lines springs from the fact that a woman he is in love with is probably going to die if he fails. In projecting himself onto Batman, he may find similar issues. Perhaps, in the past, a person he loves was hurt and he has yet to cope with it. But perhaps this may not be the case. But if his original guess is right, he would have figured out his deep-seated problem. In so doing, he would have a knowledge of himself, enough to a point where he can fix my flaws. 

     For another example, suppose a woman struggling with dating problems. She goes on dates she knows fully she will not commit to, wasting the time of herself and the guy, risking gossip within the community, and possible evils deed from the guy; no possible good can come out of it. She then lies to herself, justifying her wrongful actions by saying: "I was just giving the guy the benefit of the doubt. I was charitable." In this case, she could perhaps project herself onto Robin. In so doing, she may or may not realize that she had an inattentive father. Or perhaps she lacked a father altogether. If father issues is not the case, she might be able to project herself onto Aphrodite, finding out that she is more like pure passion as opposed to reasoned control, using her prefrontal cortex to practically reason out possible outcomes of her actions. Whichever one she realizes, she might be able to cope with her problems by actively seeking better solutions. If the former, she would seek out good male role models, not the ones who would simply give her attention she so lacked in her childhood. If the latter, she would work on using her rational capacities more, controlling her passions.

     These are examples of amateur, or"lay," self-psychoanalysis. But such exercises might be able to delay, or even remove, the need of a psychotherapist.  After all, mental problems come from within. If an individual is capable of self-searching and meditations and gain self-knowledge, wouldn't that individual be able to fix the parts that are broken? I do fully acknowledge that projecting oneself onto fictional characters is an insufficient way to gain self-knowledge, but perhaps it could be a step toward it.