Before I decided to stop writing my ‘Movies and Mental Health’ blog, I had intended to do a video about the narcissistic mother as portrayed in two different films, Black Swan and The Fighter; in this post, I’ll be referring to those films but I won’t include video clips. If you haven’t seen them, I… Continue reading The Narcissistic Mother
Category: Shame/Narcissism
Performance Anxiety and Shame
When artists use their medium as an attempt to escape from internal “ugliness”, performance anxiety may reflect the fear of being exposed, their true damaged self becoming visible to the audience.
Narcissistic Rage and the Failure of Empathy: ‘Citizen Kane’
Charles Foster Kane from the classic film ‘Citizen Kane’ displays narcissistic rage and a lack of empathy, psychological features that show up in different personality and autistic spectrum disorders.
Attachment Theory and the Tenacity of Defense Mechanisms
Early failures in attachment lead to the development of defense mechanisms, permanently structured into the brain’s neurology as it develops. This lasting damage does NOT mean that real and meaningful change is impossible.
Attachment Theory and the Origins of Shame
A discussion of Allan Schore’s video lecture on the neuro-psychology of attachment, and how failures of attunement between mother and child permanently alter the development of the infant’s brain.