"The Miarcle Worker", "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "David and Lisa", arrived in theaters in the same season and all black and white, all intense, human stories...that influenced me to dedicate my life to becoming a "wounded Healer". This little film, hit me hard, by first confronting my own demons, my family of origin, the dry 1950's in the Mid West Kansas prairie. Not like the "Snake Pit", this exploration of mental illness, was warmer, more understandable and approachable with the human heart. Meinger's Clinic was nearby in Topeka, Kansas, and they were doing the best clinical work in the world to date.
The movie theater was our only source of connection with the outside world emotionally. Yes, radio and later TV, just one channel CBS, brought to our living rooms, words, pictures and ideas, some painful some joyous.
A small Kansas wheat farming community can be a "closed information system", that is thrown into conflict, by new ideas about humanity, God, the larger World out there.
We were "shaped" emotionally more by film than TV or Radio. Cinema Scope presented a window on the world, in sound and images 60x our physical being and we were enmeshed on many psychological levels by film. That is the power of film, especially in a theater with other people.
James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, in "Giant", Kim Novak and William Holden, in "Picnic", made down the road from our town, were only the tip of the iceberg. "Best Years of Our Lives" and "Since You Went Away", were more than just images on the silver screen in a dark movie theater....that was 'US' up there, that was our story, our lives. We were "known, validated perhaps" by these images.
We were "defined" by fashion, haircuts, musicals, songs, dance, social conflict and reminded us of our humanity, the HUMAN COMEDY, that we lived in our local patterns, in our own words and behaviors.
I later became a "theater major" at the University of Colorado. Theater helped me understand human behavior, human motivation and the human masks of tragedy and comedy. Sports were important for character and physical glory and the Olympics, But Theater showed "why" the hero, the villain, the plots enriched our daily emotions.
Psychology was a dimension of theater. "David and Lisa", I was like them "both" in my way and was led to explore my own shadow and my teenage demons. Like "Rebel Without a Cause" we found these films to be therapeutic and healing on many levels. Walt Disney had lied to us and westerns no longer held my interests. As a teenager my hormones were creating a new me, a new sense of personality and the purpose of being alive. I had to "know" who I am and who I am not...for some reason. "Why are we here on the dirt prairie?" No, not "Oklahoma" again? ha
I never take a client that is "sicker" than I am. ha And felt I should drop out my first year in graduate school, because I saw myself on every page. "I feel I am too sick to be a therapist", I told my professors. They smiled.
"We are more concerned about students, who never see themselves on any of the pages in the DSM", they added.
I have not regretted becoming a therapist and "David and Lisa" helped build the bridge to that island, called the "Unconscious".
The cast is perfect. The performances are influenced by the 1950s and like ...'Without a Cause', parents were that emotionally dead to us even then.
I am pleased this film has survived and is on DVD. Music is lovely and fits the action, Kier should have been nominated for an Oscar as well as the actor who played "Lisa" can't remember her name. I actually become a close version of the psychiatrist in my way. VSS
The movie theater was our only source of connection with the outside world emotionally. Yes, radio and later TV, just one channel CBS, brought to our living rooms, words, pictures and ideas, some painful some joyous.
A small Kansas wheat farming community can be a "closed information system", that is thrown into conflict, by new ideas about humanity, God, the larger World out there.
We were "shaped" emotionally more by film than TV or Radio. Cinema Scope presented a window on the world, in sound and images 60x our physical being and we were enmeshed on many psychological levels by film. That is the power of film, especially in a theater with other people.
James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, in "Giant", Kim Novak and William Holden, in "Picnic", made down the road from our town, were only the tip of the iceberg. "Best Years of Our Lives" and "Since You Went Away", were more than just images on the silver screen in a dark movie theater....that was 'US' up there, that was our story, our lives. We were "known, validated perhaps" by these images.
We were "defined" by fashion, haircuts, musicals, songs, dance, social conflict and reminded us of our humanity, the HUMAN COMEDY, that we lived in our local patterns, in our own words and behaviors.
I later became a "theater major" at the University of Colorado. Theater helped me understand human behavior, human motivation and the human masks of tragedy and comedy. Sports were important for character and physical glory and the Olympics, But Theater showed "why" the hero, the villain, the plots enriched our daily emotions.
Psychology was a dimension of theater. "David and Lisa", I was like them "both" in my way and was led to explore my own shadow and my teenage demons. Like "Rebel Without a Cause" we found these films to be therapeutic and healing on many levels. Walt Disney had lied to us and westerns no longer held my interests. As a teenager my hormones were creating a new me, a new sense of personality and the purpose of being alive. I had to "know" who I am and who I am not...for some reason. "Why are we here on the dirt prairie?" No, not "Oklahoma" again? ha
I never take a client that is "sicker" than I am. ha And felt I should drop out my first year in graduate school, because I saw myself on every page. "I feel I am too sick to be a therapist", I told my professors. They smiled.
"We are more concerned about students, who never see themselves on any of the pages in the DSM", they added.
I have not regretted becoming a therapist and "David and Lisa" helped build the bridge to that island, called the "Unconscious".
The cast is perfect. The performances are influenced by the 1950s and like ...'Without a Cause', parents were that emotionally dead to us even then.
I am pleased this film has survived and is on DVD. Music is lovely and fits the action, Kier should have been nominated for an Oscar as well as the actor who played "Lisa" can't remember her name. I actually become a close version of the psychiatrist in my way. VSS