Schindler's List (1993)

An award winning movie based on a book called the Schindler's Ark (1982).  The story was set during the World War II where millions of jews were brutally murdered in the holocaust. Oskar Schindle is a name remembered by thousands of Jews whose lives were saved by him in a list now known as the Schindle’ List, thus the name of the film.

Prejudice and discrimination can be seen throughout the film where the Jews were treated like animals. For instances, Social Dominance Theory is clearly illustrated in the film when houses and properties of the Jews were taken away by the Nazi, and the Jews were forced to live in camps, while the Nazi enjoyed themselves in a prestige lifestyle. Social Dominance Theory states that a social group can be organized in a power hierarchy, where the dominant groups enjoy disproportionate share of assets, and subordinate groups receive most of its liabilities. The prejudice of the Nazi towards the Jews arises because the Nazi were envious of the achievement of the Jews who were immigrants who were allowed to set foot on their territory many years ago. They fear the Jews would one day take over their place as leaving them with the left overs. In social psychology, this phenomena is termed as Contemptuous Prejudice, which happens when a perceivingly high status social group felt threaten by the competitiveness of a lower social status group. Authoritarianism was practiced by the Nazi’s leaders. For instances, the Jews were force to either submit to the authority, which was the Nazi, or die. An example can be seen in a scene of a lady with an engineering degree who voice out her opinion was then killed.

Inspired by the mass murder by the Nazi army, Milgram’s experiment on obedience to authority figure was a series of psychological experiment to study the willingness of an individual to perform a conflicting act upon orders from the authority. The result showed that 65% of participants followed all the orders strictly given by the researchers who were the authoritical figures in the experiment. This explains why the Nazi armies were willing to kill. In addition to that, deindividuation of the Nazi armies facilitated the cruel act of killing as they temporary loss their individual identity by reduced self-awareness to follow the group. Emergent norm which was at that time, killing the Jews, had occurred.

Grace Is Gone (2007)

Directed by James Strouse, Grace Is Gone (2007) tells a story of how a family reacted towards the loss of their love ones in war. In this case, Grace who was the wife of the main character of this movie, Stanley Philips and a mother to 2 daughters Heidi and Dawn died in a war. When the news was brought to Stanley he did not know how to break it to the girls. When the girls returned from schools, Stanley called the girls to the living room to talk to the girls about their mother’s death. However, his intention was delayed when he saw how carelessly and happily the girls were playing with each other as though nothing has happened. It was then when Stanly decided to hold on to the news a little longer so that the girls don’t have to face the grief of losing their mother so soon. In addition to that, Stanley also gets to live as though his wife has never left when he was with the girls.

In the movie, Stanley agreed to a random suggestion by Dawn to visit the Enchanted Garden which was few days drive away. When Heidi brought up reasons to oppose the idea, Stanley replied by saying, “What if we did right now went to Enchanted Garden? If that’s something you’d like to do why not?”. He also kept asking what other fun activities the girls would like to do on their journey. It seems to me as though Stanley was temporary trying to run way from reality by engaging with something fun with that girls that can put his mind of the grief. He even drove into the fields recklessly to tell Heidi who has been overthinking in every action they did that when he was a teenager, he did what he felt was fun without giving much thought about it. He taught Heidi lessons with his actions rather than the usual parent-child lecture most conventional family do.

While experiencing grief, the feeling of anger, depression, despair, shock, and disbelief come into the picture. Throughout the movie, after learning the loss of his wife, Stanley was despair despite trying to act as though nothing has happened in front of his daughters. This can be seen at instances when his facial expression suddenly changes from a happily laughing with the girl to a heavy depressed expression. Another example is seen when he cried at his mother’s place when the girls went out to play with their uncle. Like many griever, Stanley was engaged in a coping mechanism. He called home to listen to his wife’s voice mail recording and talk to her on the phone. Stanley decision to bring the girls to the Enchanted Garden was also a coping strategy that could bring him closer to his wife as it was the last place they visited before she departed. Lastly, after Stanley was ready to tell his daughters about their mother’s passing, he learnt a new way of coping with the loss of his beloved wife from Dawn by having a moment of silence to think about his wife when the digital watch rings.

  

When I first watch this movie in KPD E, I actually fell asleep as the progress of the movie was too slow. However, when I rewatched it at home, I was able to empathise more with Stanley. I suspect the reason why I wasn’t interested in the movie while I was in KPD E was because I was sitting around with friends, and my protective mechanism was up against something that reminds me of the vulnerability of the life of people around us. A lesson this movie taught me was that we can’t run away from fear forever, we will eventually face them in order to move forward in life.   

Sybil

Sybil who was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID) was a victim to a traumatic child abuse by her schizophrenic mother.  Some of Sybal's identity was awaken only when she was being exposed to a specific stimulus. In the movie Dr Wilbur employed Freudian's psychoanalytical approach in Sybil's treatment. This can be seen when Dr Wilbur requested Sybil to draw pieces of her dreams for dream analysis. In addition to that, during a therapeutic session with Sybil, Dr Wilbur allowed Sybil to talk while she was laying on a coach with Dr Wilbur out of her sight. Hypnosis was also used as a resource to acquire greater depths of details of Sybil's hidden memories by communicating with the other dissociated identities in Sybil. Throughout the entire therapeutic process, Dr Wilbur successfully portray an unconditional positive regards towards her patient, Sybil, despite having lost patient in one or two occasions. Dr Wilbur also played a role of a nurturer to Sybil in order to gain complete trust from Sybil.  Some people argued that Dr Wilbur's therapy did not meet the ethical standards In the field of psychotherapy. However, these approaches seemed to be a success in recovering a hidden memory of Sybil's traumatic childhood with her schizophrenic mother. So whether or not a concise line should be drawn at the boundary is indeed arguable. One may argue that if there is no boundary as to how far a therapist should go, psychotherapy may go out of hand, and unethical individuals might make use of their skills to take advantages from their patient. In the contrary, others may support the fact that in special cases such as that of Sybil's, therapists should be permitted to cross the line for the sake of providing maximum assistance in helping their patient recover and live a normal life. I personally think ethical standards should be uphold with a flexibility to cross the line occasionally only when it's beneficial to the patients' recovery.

The debate surrounding whether or not DID really exist is still on a surge. The main reason behind the uncertainties of DID arises in accordance to the unusual rise in the number of reported cases of DID in counties where movie or tv shows of DID are screened. Another evidence supporting this is the rare occurrence of DID cases, in addition to Shirley Mason, a DID patient whom Sybil's story is based on, claimed to have made everything up to seek attention. As being portrayed in the movie, Sybil confessed to Dr Wilbur that she was not suffering from DID when they were about to uncover some of the deepest ends of Sybil's darkest memories. But it was just a fake confession made up by Sybil to stop Dr Wilbur from digging deeper into an untouchable memory. In real life, people who believed in DID proposed that most DID patients were victim of a early or middle childhood abuse. At such, a defense mechanism arises as a protective measures to help them cope with an unbearable disturbances. This could be a part of a more serious case of dissociative amnesia which proceeded into the development of multiple identities in its victims. I personally do not have a clear stand as to whether or not DID exist as an independent mental disorder itself or it's just story made up by victims of a combination of other mental disorders. There should be more neurological research conducted on existing DID patient in order to add on to the debate. Lastly, through my observation, putting aside biological influences, most if not all chronic mental disorder like DID and psychopathy arises from an unfulfilling and/or abusive childhood. This shows how important it is in providing children with a secure, safe and loving environment while they are growing up.

The Sixth Sense

Self disclosure

At the beginning of the movie, cole did not believe the Dr Malcolm was able to help him with his condition. He was called a freak at school for seeing and saying things that would put people in distress. To make things worse, he was being physically and mentally abused by his peers and teachers for instance, in a history class, his teacher became mad and shouted at Cole when Cole annoy him Infront of the class. In addition to that, his peers locked him up I'm a dungeon in a birthday party celebration. Even the child psychologist Cole used to see was not able to help him with his situation. As a result. Cole would easily assume Dr Malcolm to be just another individual who would eventually lose faith on him.

Fortunately, Dr Malcolm was determine in helping Cole. He first attempted to gain Cole's trust by playing games and showing magic tricks to him. Although Cole and Dr Malcolm started becoming friends, Cole was still holding back to his secrets. He only started exposing his secret when Dr began sharing about his failing relationship with his wife. When Dr Malcolm disclose himself to Cole, it showed that he had handed his trust to Cole. In return, Cole decided to trust Dr Malcolm by reviewing the secret he has been hiding all these while.

Personal biases

I am both surprise and disappointed when I saw the twist of the film when Dr Malcolm realized that he was already dead. My initial expectation of the film was to see a scientific explanation of why some people claim to see superstitious beings. In the contrary, the film intends to persuade its audiences into believing the existence of  superstitious beings. To be honest, sympathies with Vole's condition, but I personally do not believe in the existence of superstitious being as there is no scientific evidence indicating its existence both directly and indirectly. I would agree with Dr Malcolm's initial assumption that Cole could be suffering from lesions from brain regions like the occipital lobe or may be undergoing schizophrenia of an underlying mental disorder that has yet to be known. However, this is just an assumption from a scientific view. In order to reject the null hypothesis, a thorough research needs to be carried out in this field.

Whale Rider

Gender stereotype, love and cognitive dissonance

The movie kick start with a typical gender stereotype where men are more superior as compared to woman. This can be seen In Koro's reaction when Paikea's twin brother passed on. Koro held on strongly onto the tradition and rituals in the Maori community, which stated that only the first born son from each family are allowed to be the chef in the Maori community. Despite being firm and strict in a way, Koro's love for his granddaughter, Paikea can be seen in some occasions in the film. For instance, Koro tend to cycle. Paikea to and back from school everyday. And when Paikea decided to leave with her father, Koro showed his love by requesting to cycle Paikea for the last time before she left.  Koro's love towards Paikea became contradictory when Paikea began showing signs of leadership suggesting that she could be the next chef of the Maori community. For example, when Paikea successfully start the broken engine without the aid of external tools, Koro stormed at her in anger. As a result of the contradiction between love and gender stereotype, Koro struggled with cognitive dissonance which had led him into a self-defense mechanism of denial.

From denial to acceptance

At the beginning when Koro began to realize Paikea's potential in leadership, Koro was in a denial. He refused to provide Paikea with equal learning opportunity when he was training the first born boys in the community. In addition to that, he also refused to cycle Paikea back from school like how he used to do before Paikea decide to stay in the community instead of leaving with her father. Koro's denial slowly evolved into acceptance when Paikea kept proving her ability in the movie. For instance, when Koro refused to teach Paikea the traditional martial art of the Maori community, Paikea was able to learn for her uncle Rawiri and beat Koro's student. Paikea again proved her determination by diving into the ocean to recover Koro's lost whale tooth, which the boys easily gave up on searching. Towards the end of the movie, Paikea showed her worthiness by riding on a whale to lead the other back into the ocean. At the end of the movie, Koro completely accepted the fact that Paikea will be the next leader in the. Maori community.

Connection to the nature

I personally find the scenes of the whales swimming in the ocean heart warming. The interaction of the Maori community and the whales reminds us how our ancestors used to be so close to the nature in their daily life.

Forget Paris

The title of the movie was named Forget Paris as an indication that all romantic relationship started off sweet and lovely, just like Mickey and Ellen's relationship when they first met in France. However, along the journey in the relationship,  circumstances would arise and result in undesired conflict and argument. For instance, Ellen quit the job she loves just to be with Mickey but she wasn't happy. Mickey then left his dream job as a referee at the NBA to fulfill Ellen's needs. These circumstances eventually drive both party into dissatisfaction which leads to arguments. There was when things started to go out of hand, Mickey and Ellen tend to compare their messy relationship to the good old days when the relationship just started when they were in Paris. As a result, in order for Mickey and Ellen to move forward in the relationship with satisfaction, they ought to let go of their expectation of the relationship, and thus, forget Paris.

In most films, their story ended at the beginning of a love story, allowing audiences to assume that the story will go on in a happily ever after way. This films took us through the journey of a romantic relationship where we can see the ups and downs of a couple relationship. We get to see how a relationship revolutionalised from a romantic love to a consummate love in Sternberg’s Triangular Theory
of Love. The relationship between Mickey and Ellen started off with passion and intimacy, which Sternberg term it as a romantic love. This is where most relationship began. This stage can be seen when Mickey and Ellen was going out together in Paris. Commitment started coming into the relationship when they decided to commit into a marriage. However, their relationship started to fluctuate from the point when Ellen moved from Paris to live with Mickey. The instability in relationship alters around the 3 main factors suggested by Sternberg in this theory of love. The 3 factors were passion, intimacy and commitment. For instance, at one point in the relationship, Mickey and Ellen started to distance themselves from each other. That was when there were only commitment left in their relationship. Sternbergn called this an empty love. Fortunately their relationship managed to bounds back into a consummate love towards the end of the movie when both Ellen and Mickey decided to let go of the past and expectations to be together again.

Strictly Ballroom

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." In the movie, social comforting was a trend. The movie started with a flash back of Scott and his partner, Liz, dancing in a competition. In the competition, Scott introduced improvised dance moves to the floor, taking Liz by surprise. Despite the cheers from the audiences, Scott and his partner lost in the competition. This shows how big of a role social conformity played in the competition. In addition to that, the reaction of the people around Scott that were interviewed showed strong disapproval of Scott's improvised dancing step except for Fren who was supportive of change.

Scott's father who was like him, went against social conformity and stopped dancing infront of the public after he learned that most people would choose to conform into what authority and general public said is right, rather then what they think is right. This is where we see deindividualtion where a person temporarily losses his or her own identity to the crowd. Group thinking was observed amongst the board of dancing directors in the movie. For instance, they overestimated dancing moves that has been establish while ignoring possible intervention and improvement.  Secondly, they were being close minded and had a stereotypical view against contestants who do not follow the established dancing steps. Furthermore, they increase conformity pressure amongst others.

Towards the end of the movie, When Scott and Fren decided to introduce their new dancing steps in the Grand Pacific Competition, they were asked to leave the dancing floor by an authoritative figure from the board of dancing competition. However,  there were an emergent norm amongst the crowd that eventually took over and become a tread. This started when one individual stood up for what they truly believed as right. One lesson I learn from the movie is that persistent towards what we believe is right eventually leads us to success despite multiple failures and disapproval that were thrown to throughout he journey.

Running on Empty

In the movie, the Pope family who have been running from the FBI for many years developed a strong emotional bonding among themselves. This can be seen when Danny kept telling Lorna that his family needed him and he couldn't leave them to study at Julliard. Annie and Arthur played an authoritative role, which includes both responsiveness and demandingness on parenting. This is observed from their interaction with their children. For instance, they responded to their children's needs but at the sane time demanded their children to behave in ways that would not attract problems to the already troubled family.

Danny's relationship with Lorna started gradually after several coincidental meetings where they started knowing each other in a deeper level. This could be explained using self-disclosure under Social Penetration Theory. Their relationship became even closer after Danny confessed his family secret to Lorna. The interpersonal attraction between Danny and Lorna is also a result of both these individuals shared similarities in certain arena. For example, they both choice cooking as an elective. However, several contact in the characters interest can be observed. This can be explained by the theory of "opposite attracts", which states that traits in potential partners compliments each others traits.

In the movie, Denny who knew from the very beginning that he wont be attending college went for Julliards audition because deep inside, he has a desire to study music. This can be seen from his admiration towards his maternal grandmother who was an outstanding figure in the field of music. These scenes successfully portrayed conflicting feeling between his goals and his love towards his family. Regret can be observed in Annie when her father spoke to her on the bright future she has given up. Annie did not want to se e her son walking the same path she did, as a result, she was willing to let go of him to pursue his dreams.

Awakening

The movie started with scenes of a child, Leonard, being infected by a disease known as Encephalitis Lethargica which affects the neurons in the basal ganglion and midbrain, where the substantial nigra lies. (Dale RC, Church AJ, Surtees RA, Lees AJ, Adcock JE, Harding B, Neville BG & Giovannoni G, 2004)This explains why some patients suffering from it eventually become catatonic as the basal ganglion is responsible for the coordination of movement, while the substantial nigra is responsible for movement, rewards and addiction. Having known that Parkinson's patients experience the inability to produce Dopaminic Neurons in the substantial nigra, similar to patients who were infected by Encephalitis Lethargica, Dr Sayer suggested an attempt to put catatonic patients who had a history of Encephalitis Lethargica disease, on the same medication as Parkinson's patient.( National Parkinson Foundation, n.d.) As a result, L-Dopa was suggested and used. At the beginning, L-Dopa seemed to work fairly well on the patients, however, their body eventually learn to tolerate the effects of L-Dopa and higher dosage is needed in order to maintain the 'awakening' effect. Unfortunately, there were side effects. It became noticeable in Leonard when he began showing signs of hallucinations and strong emotions after some time of consumption. The drugs were then slowly taken away from the patients by gradually reducing the dosages. The effects of reducing L-Dopa from Leonard's system can be seen from the deterioration of his movements which eventually brought him back to a catatonic state.

The moments where the patients were able to move their arms to catch an object moving pass them and started feeding themselves when a particular music was played caught my attention. I have yet to come out with any reasonable explanation that match their abilities of catching moving objects. However, I suspect that the reason why they were able to move when the right music was played could have been due to a short activation of a pleasurable long term memory associated with the music played, and resulted in the release of dopamine in the substantial nigra temporarily. The scenes showing a patient walking towards the window both before and after consumption of the medication prescribed by Dr Sayer suggested that these patients may not have completely lost their consciousness while they were in a catatonic state. This is further evidenced when a spike was observed on Leonard's brain wave readings upon hearing his name being called.

In the movie, Leonard's mother complained to Dr Sayer how much her son has changed and how he wouldn't survive without her assistance when Leonard started directing his focus from his mother to a lady he was in love in. This is an evident of Empty Nest syndrome which can be defined as a phenomena that occur when parent feel sad and empty when their child leave them. I was literally moved by the unconditional love given by Leonard's mother to her so  over decades without asking anything in return. What I learn most from the movie is that we metaphor-logically have 2 lives. One is our consciousness, the other is our spirit for life. Many of us may still be conscious over our surrounding, but have lost the spirit of living by submerging into daily routine with no passion or hope. This movie is meant to show us the awakening of the consciousness of Leonard and the other catatonic patients, and their awakenings is meant to awaken the spirit of living within us.

Cites:

 Dale RC, Church AJ, Surtees RA, Lees AJ, Adcock JE, Harding B, Neville BG & Giovannoni G. (2004). Encephalitis lethargica syndrome: 20 new cases and evidence of basal ganglia autoimmunity. - PubMed - NCBI. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 26 January 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14570817

 National Parkinson Foundation. National Parkinson Foundation: Believe in Better. Retrieved 26 January 2016, from http://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/what-is-parkinsons
I

Cinema Paradiso

Salvatore was adventurous and outgoing ever since he was a child. Through my observation as a psychology student, Salvatore would score high on Openness, Extraversion and Agreeableness on the Big 5 Personality Test. For instance, Salvatore had always been curious and was open to new ideas offered by his mentor, Alfredo. In addition to that, he extended his interest by exploring and experimenting with films on camera when he became a young adult. These are traits representing Openness according to the Big 5 Personality Test.  Salvatore's Extraversion characteristics can be seen from how he interacts with people around him. For example, he was confident enough to approach a girl of interest directly which introverts normally wouldn't do. Salvatore's Agreeableness can be seen on his interaction with his mentor with trust and kindness especially after his mentor lost his sight.

In the movie, Salvatore and Alfredo's relationship have exceeded mentor-student relationship. In fact, I was able to observe a father and son relationship among them. However, their relationship started with a teasing manner. They eventually became friends when they both started helping each other. For example, when Salvatore was in trouble with his mum watching a movie in a cinema with her money, Alfredo extended help. The same happened when Salvatore conditionally helped Alfredo with his examination. Their relationship draws closer as they disclose themselves to each other in a deeper and broader manner. This can be explained through Social Penetration Theory which stated that development of close relationship is proportional to the extend of self-disclosure. Altruistic helping can be observed in scenes where Salvatore ran into the fire risking his own life to save Alfredo. Towards the end of the movie, Alfredo instructed Salvatore to never return to his home town as he felt it was too small to keep a dreamer like Salvatore. On top of that, Alfredo wanted Salvatore to pursue his dream whole hearty without being restrained by his past.

While Salvatore was pursuing his love, Elena, he used interpersonal attraction strategies such as the mere exposure effect. For instance, Salvatore proposed to stand by Elena,s window for 100 days, waiting for her to change her mind and fall in love with him. When Elena rejected Salvatore at the beginning, playing hard to get strategy had been applied. This strategy succeeded in awakening Salvatore's determination to woo Elena with a strong desire. After they officially became a couple, they shared bother Passionate and Intimate love. Salvatore wanted to Commit to Elena but little Commitment was observed in Elena. The movie ended with ended scenes of couple kissing in a old video clip. This could be because these kissing scenes was a remembrance of Salvatore's initial passion towards filming. Another explanation could be that Salvatore's relationship with his only true love, Elena. ended with a passionate kiss.