Why Geniuses Fall Down on Their Own – A Psychological Analysis of “The Mind Catcher
Professor Lambert of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a big name in mathematics who won the Fields Medal, known as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics”, left a problem for the college students in his class, which was written on the blackboard in the hallway, and said, “Let’s see who can give the answer before the end of the semester. The answer.
The real meaning of Professor Lambert’s statement was, “I don’t believe any of you can give the answer, after all, as a leading mathematician, it took him a long time to find the answer.
However, within two days, the answer appeared on the blackboard. However, this person did not want to show up, even though showing up could enjoy a rare honor.
Prof. Lambert gave a second challenge, which took him and his partner two whole years to solve.
Again, within two days, the “mysterious mathematical genius” gave the answer again. This time, Professor Lambert saw the figure of the “mysterious mathematical genius” and found that he was a janitor in the building of MIT, a top academic institution, but the janitor did not want to be found, he insulted the professor while running away.
This is the plot at the beginning of the famous psychological film “Mindhunter” (also known as “The Sun is Like Me”). The world is divided, and the glory of MIT is completely overshadowed by a down-on-his-luck janitor.
He says to the genius: you are a frightened and arrogant child
However, the split in the external world stems from the split within. This down-and-out boy, he actually only a few spare time outside of work to do a little math problem solving and reading the “right thing”, and most of his spare time, he is with a few problem youths fighting, stealing and even assaulting police officers. One of his specialties is to go to MIT or Harvard University and “take care of a fool in three minutes”.
The boy with a split heart is Will, and by the time Lambert finds Will, Will is already in jail for fighting and assaulting a police officer, but Lambert applies for bail as Will’s guardian, on two conditions: one, Will has to work with Lambert to solve math problems; two, Will has to see a psychiatrist.
Will does not want to see a psychiatrist, but more than that, he does not want to go to jail. The lesser of two evils, he had no choice but to agree to be a patient.
However, as a genius patient, Will drove away five psychiatrists one after another. Eventually, Lambert got his college classmate, now a psychology professor, Sean to do the treatment for Will.
Likewise, in the first meeting, Will stung Sean. He saw what was going on in Sean’s mind at the time by looking at one of his paintings. Sean’s painting was of a man painting a boat alone in a choppy sea. In response, Will saw two things and said to Sean, first, that you were in a storm, and second, that you had married the “wrong woman.
Sion was enraged, he warned Will, do not insult his dead wife, and when Will again said “yes, you did marry the wrong woman”, Sion rage, he rushed up to choke Will and threatened, if you say so again, I will kill you.
Will was shocked. Previously, he teased those psychiatrists, their way first panic, followed by hiding their anger, and then refused to continue to do his treatment. But Sean was different; he too was stung, but he expressed his anger directly. What is even more different is that the man, who was stung and angered, agreed to continue to give him therapy.
In psychotherapy, or in all intimate relationships, this is a critical point.
We all have a fixed logic that we believe that some of our traits are “good selves” that allow us to maintain and promote relationships, while some of our traits are “bad selves” that can lead to the distancing of a relationship or even the end of a relationship.
Thus, when we want to be close to someone, we show our “good self” and deliberately suppress our “bad self”, while when we want to be distant from someone, we show our “bad self” and stop showing our “good self”. When we want to be distant from someone, we show our “bad self” and stop showing our “good self”.
For example, a codependent person, when wanting to be close to someone, will act very codependent, sometimes called “cute”. On the contrary, a dominant person, when wanting to be close to a person, will show a very capable side.
At that point, if the person is trapped and really gets close to us when we show our “good self” and ends the relationship when we show our “bad self”, it means that our logic is reinforced once again.
This is the root of our psychological problems. The dependent person always finds that others do not accept him as if he is not dependent enough, and the dominant person finds that others do not accept him as if he is not powerful enough. So, every time we encounter a crisis event, we further reinforce our logic, which leads us to become more and more rigid.
If therapy works at all, the key point is that the therapist helps the client understand that he doesn’t have to cling to that logic, that is, that his “good self” doesn’t necessarily promote relationships, and that his “bad self” doesn’t necessarily alienate the relationship.
Will’s logic, in fact, is that “genius” is the bad self and “mediocrity” is the good self. He actually believes that genius does not exchange for intimacy in a relationship, while mediocrity can do so. Whenever he shows genius, he is in fact most of the time distancing or even ending a relationship. So, we see that his intelligence is used to stimulate the psychiatrist, “three minutes to get rid of a fool” and other things.
It can also be said that he actually hates his genius, he does not want people to accept him because he is a genius, he prefers people to accept him just because he is a person.
All five of those psychiatrists fell for Will’s trick, and when Will expressed his genius in a bad way, they all broke off their relationship with him. Sean was different, it seems, and he too fell for Will’s trick, and was stung just as much, if not more. But instead of breaking off his relationship with Will at this point, he chose to reveal his heart honestly.
When Sean does this, Will’s world is already being turned upside down. For the first time, Will discovers that a sincere expression of anger does not mean the end of the relationship.
In the second meeting, Will’s world is further turned upside down. Sean first admits that Will did sting him and kept him up at night, but in the midst of that pain, Sean figured out a lot.
Despite always using his smarts on the attack, Will prides himself on his intelligence. However, Sean said to him, “When I see you, I don’t see cleverness and confidence, I see an arrogant child who is scared silly.”
The meaning of this statement is that Sean understood that Will’s arrogant intelligence and self-confidence was nothing more than a defense against pain. This defense is a wall that dares Will to establish a relationship only with the book, but not directly with the world. And before he said this, Sean also said a shocking quote.
You’re just a kid, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Ask you about art and you might make a crude argument from an art book. You know a lot about Michelangelo, his political passions, his friendship with the Pope, and his sexual preoccupations, you know a lot about him, don’t you? But do you know the smell of the Sistine Chapel? You’ve never stood there and looked up at the famous paintings on the ceiling, have you? Surely you have never seen one?
If I ask you about women, you can tell me all about it. You may have had sex a few times, but you can’t tell me the real joy you feel when you wake up next to a woman.
You are young and tough, and if I talk to you about war, you can throw Shakespeare at me and recite “To the battlefield, dear friend,” but you have never been in battle, never held your friend’s head in your arms, watched him take his last breath, stared at you, and asked for help.
I ask you what love is, you may be able to chant the wind and the moon, but you have never tried to devote yourself to truly fall in love with each other, to know each other’s hearts when you meet each other’s eyes, as if God had arranged for an angel to come down to earth to offer only to you, to save you from the abyss of hell, and you have never tried the feeling of caring for her in every way, you have never tried to be with her with deep love and determination, knowing that she is terminally ill, you have never tried to lose the love of your life. Feelings ……
Sean continued, don’t think, I know you, maybe I can see you through knowledge, but that’s not you, unless you are willing to talk about yourself, I don’t know who you really are.
After these words, Sean dropped the phrase “Now it’s your turn”, which means that I am willing to face you sincerely, but are you ready to face me sincerely?
Sean’s words also stung Will, or rather, shocked Will. For the first time, the “right people” to him so frankly, and he used to deal with these people’s tricks seem to no longer work. So, are you willing to take a chance? To really reveal his heart to a psychiatrist?
In the end, Will chose to continue.
Imperfection is a good thing.
Choosing to continue was a willingness, meaning that Will was willing to try to change, but it took time to move from this initial willingness to revealing his heart, so Will spent long periods of time in silence during the next two sessions.
When Will was silent, Sean was just as silent. He never spoke first, but waited for Will to speak.
This silence had two meanings. First, he was telling Will that you have the right to be silent. Second, Will has to decide for himself whether to reveal his heart, rather than the psychiatrist to tempt or pressure Will to reveal his heart.
Finally, after a long game of “stare”, Will spoke up. This means that the treatment has officially begun.
The first topic after the official start of therapy was love. Sean asked Will if he was in love. Will replied that he was, but he was a little afraid to go on.
Why? Sean asked. Will replied, “Right now she’s perfect, and I don’t want to ruin it.”
To this, Sean said, “Maybe it’s because you think you’re perfect and you don’t want to ruin …… it’s excellent philosophy to go through life without knowing anyone.”
This is the reason why countless people will hesitate to fall in love. It may seem that we think the other person is too perfect, so we are afraid to approach or dare not destroy this fantasy, but in fact it is our fear of our imperfections being seen by the other person.
When I was in college, I did a telephone psychological hotline, and a boy who claimed to be very handsome called me to say that he had fallen out of love and was in pain. But this breakup was his choice again. He went shopping with a beautiful woman, who suddenly said, “Wait for me. He waited for a long time did not see the beauty back, then he suddenly understood that the beauty is pooping. Once he thought of such a beautiful beauty in the scene of defecation, he especially can not stand, so he turned around and go.
The implicit truth in this story is that the “beauty” of a beautiful woman and the “handsome” of a handsome man are the “good self”, and they can be accepted by others because of the “good self” in their appearance. “Once the “ugly” “bad self” appears, they will not get the love and recognition in the relationship. So the boy turned away, seemingly because he could not accept the fact that beautiful women also poop, but in fact, he could not accept that he was also ugly at times.
How do you get the visitor to let go of his attachment to this logic in therapy? The psychologist can poke the visitor’s tricks behind this logic, but it would be too raw to just do that.
So, after poking Will’s game without moving, Sean told a story of his own. He said that his wife farted superbly. Once, he was awakened by his wife’s fart, then his dog barked, and finally, his wife herself was awakened and asked him if it was you who was farting, and Sean said yes.
Sean couldn’t help but laugh maniacally as he told this story, and Will couldn’t help but laugh as well. After the story was told, Sean explained that truth is beauty, “Imperfection is the good thing, it can choose who enters my world …… your girl is not perfect either, the point is, are you right for each other.”
Immediately after this consultation, Will went to see the girl he loved – Skylar from Harvard University went.
Love at its deepest, often means the greatest crisis
Will and Skylar met at a bar at Harvard University. At the time, Will and his three best friends – none of whom had a chance to go to college – went to the bar partly to “pick up girls” and partly to continue Will’s best game – “three minutes to get a sucker,” from one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
Will succeeded on both counts. Will’s best buddy Chuck poses as a history student and hits on the beautiful Skylar, but Harvard student Clark sees that Chuck is an impostor and comes over to test Chuck’s knowledge of history, but is humiliated by Will, who saves the day.
Will not only humiliated Clark, who presented himself as a Harvard student, but also won Skylar’s favor, and the two sparked for the first time.
A romantic relationship is a deeper relationship than a therapeutic one. Since Will is afraid to enter into a relationship with a psychiatrist, he is even less courageous to enter into a real relationship with the girl he loves. Or rather, it is the more difficult challenge.
Inspired by Sean, Will finally gets up the courage to see Skylar, and the relationship keeps going as if it’s going well.
But the crisis is always there. Keen viewers will find that Will has not believed that Skylar loves himself, Skylar’s many words, he interpreted as, Skylar does not really love him.
For example, Skylar says to him, “Organic chemistry doesn’t work for people like you. Will immediately asked what he meant by “people like you.
For example, he hints to Skylar several times that he suspects he is just a toy for Skylar, a transitional boyfriend whose genius, poverty and legend will add some color to Skylar’s life, but that Skylar, as a rich girl, will sooner or later abandon him and eventually marry a successful man.
In the end, when their love reached its first high point, it also quickly fell to its lowest point.
After graduating from Harvard, Skylar was going to Stanford Medical School to continue her education, so she wanted Will to go to California with her. But Will refused, thinking that what if Skylar found out about his shortcomings by then? At that time, she would not be able to stand him and abandon him.
This hurt Skylar, she said, if you do not love me should tell me, if you do not love me, I will disappear and will not appear in your world again.
After hearing Skylar’s words, Will immediately said, “I don’t love you.
Hearing these words, Skylar, who had lost both parents at the age of 13, bent over in pain once again, and Will walked away.
Everyone is sticking to their own logic, everyone is looking at each other with their own logic, and as a result, the more you love, the lonelier you are, because the more you love, the more you stick to your own logic, and that’s when you can’t see each other.
For Skylar, she is a “good girl”, and the logic of a “good girl” is not to give trouble to others, so say if you do not love, tell me, I will actively disappear. But for Will, Skylar’s words will further convince that she does not love him, and she seems to be looking for an excuse to leave on her own accord.
Skylar believes that wanting Will to go to California with her proves that she loves him. But in Will’s world, such a relocation is the scariest thing of all. He was first abandoned by his parents and then given up for foster care four times, three of which he was severely abused. So, deep down, he thought that a change of home was the scariest thing of all.
So, at the first time when they loved to the deepest level, they also suffered the worst crisis. This is the result of each of them sticking to their own logic. Of course, it was mainly the result of Will sticking to his own logic.
The immediate knot of the heart that does not dare to change is friendship
In fact, at this time, not only love reached its first climax, his treatment also reached a climax, Will and Sean have established a deep trust. At the same time, Will’s career appears to be coming to a climax, and Professor Lambert is introducing him to a succession of good jobs ……
But for Will, this is an upheaval, he will be afraid.
Because, he grew up in a harsh survival environment, which makes him incredibly obsessed with his own logic. This is something that everyone has in common.
Each of us is convinced of our own logic. Suppose a woman says that men are no good. Then, all the men she is close to must not be good. Because she will fall in love with the assertion that “men are not good”, if she meets a “good man”, her world will be in danger of being turned upside down and her heart will feel out of control. So, in order to avoid this sense of loss of control, she will either stay away from good men, or will turn good men into bad men.
For Will, one of his assertions is “I’m just a toy”, his intelligence can bring some fun to other people’s lives, but as soon as he appears some “bad me”, an intimate relationship will immediately end, the other party will not hesitate to abandon him. His past life experiences have proven this time and again.
So, when therapy, love and career all reach a climax, his internal struggle reaches one of the most serious crises – whether to stick to his existing logic or to risk accepting a new one.
Unfortunately, most of the time, we stick to our own logic. Thus, life is just a cycle.
Interestingly, the resolution of this crisis is his best friend Chuck, which is also a touching episode of the film. When resting on the construction site, Will said he felt good about doing physical work like this all day, and he hoped that their children could play and live together in the future.
Unexpectedly, Chuck said to him, if we are 50 years old, you are still with me, I will kill you.
This shocks Will, perhaps even more than when he confronts Sean, because he thinks that he and Chuck are such good friends and that their time together is something they both enjoy.
But Chuck tells him that the happiest he’s ever been for only 10 seconds a day is when he goes to pick him up from Will’s house every day. Each time, he imagines that he won’t see Will this time, and that means Will has arrived at the place where he can show off his talents. However, each time he saw Will open the door, this feeling of happiness disappeared.
This is a very, very important part of the equation. It may seem that we all limit ourselves and live in all kinds of pain. But the reason why we are trapped in this pain and can’t get out of it is because, this apparent pain actually has a great benefit. The reason we can’t leave the pain is because we can’t let go of the benefits.
The reason why Will is self-sacrificing and the reason why he wasted his talent is immensely important is that he won friendships in this way, and his friendship with Chuck and three other deadbeats was the only support he had in the world for many years.
Relationships are everything, and it’s all about relationships. We often talk about a sense of self-worth, but in fact what we seek is not a sense of value in solitude, but a sense of value in relationships.
In the film “Mindhunter”, love is fascinating and the process of psychotherapy is even more fascinating, but what Will unintentionally values most is precisely the friendship with Chuck, a troubled young man, because it is the only relationship he has had over the years that recognizes him and accepts him. Sean understands this, so when Lambert calls Will’s friends “retarded”, he angrily defends Will.
So, when Chuck also said to him, you go away, I long for you to comply with your genius, Will really relieved. Love, career and other good and right life waiting for him in front, behind is the years of dead friends to urge, bully and accommodate, so what Will have to hesitate?
It’s not your fault.
The last climax of the film is when Will finally comes back to Sean’s therapy room, and Sean takes Will’s file, which has all his problems and abusive experiences, and says to him over and over again, “It’s not your fault.”
The first time Sean said that, Will said, “I know.”
But Will didn’t know that; he only knew verbally.
So, Sean continued.
Will was surprised, and he even looked like he hated Sean for saying that, so he said, “Don’t you tease me.”
But Sean continued, “It’s not your fault.”
Finally, Will’s defenses completely crumbled and he threw himself on top of Sean, hugging him tightly and in baby-like pain.
This hug, which has great symbolic meaning, means that Will finally truly trusts a good relationship for the first time.
The film ends with Will driving the beat up car given to him by Chuck and other deadbeats and running to California to find Skylar.
It’s a great film, both for its healing process and for its understanding of Will’s heart, which is very deep and real. The performances of Will and Sean are also excellent. For these factors, the film won the 1998 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (for Sean’s character Robin Williams) and Best Screenplay. Williams) and Best Screenplay (for Will’s Matt Damon and Chuck’s Matt Damon). The film won the 1998 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (for Sean’s Robin Williams) and Best Screenplay (for Will’s Matt Damon and Chuck’s Ben Affleck). Affleck), and won several other awards.
However, as a psychologist, I would also say that there is too much drama in this film. The director gave Will too many supportive factors, such as his talent, love, excellent psychiatrist and extremely righteous best friend, and in real life, it is very difficult to get these factors at the same time, especially Chuck’s words, I rarely see in real life.
Even, at this point things are always the opposite. When we want to break away from our old logic and run towards a new life, those who are tied to our old logic can easily develop fear and use various ways to block our change, intentionally or unintentionally.
So, we need to show more courage than Will if we want to have real change in real life.