The film Inception

The movie Inception dove-tailed very closely with two of my life's concerns.  Firstly I have a very large psychology background and secondly I have kept a dream journal for many years which you are reading on this blog.  I intend on taking these thoughts deeper in another blog entry down the road but I need time to put it together so I will introduce the topics with this entry.  In the later post I will also go into some various thoughts about Inception in many categories.  I will do this in outline form so as to hopefully cause thought without going in depth in a long dissertation.  If I was writing this the week of Inception's release I might have taken it further.

Psychology of Inception. 

A.  Relationship with the father as a basic relationship is spoken to by Freud in the
 Oedipus complex although a bit differently but the concept is very much a stalwart  of Psychology  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex

B. Dreams are often filled with daily concerns.  This is completely true and loves in one's life is paramount to emotion so therefore paramount to dreaming such as Mal was in Cobb's dreams.

C: Dreams can be elusive upon awakening but the emotion from them can linger for
 quite some time. In the film I believe it was said something like this; remembering a dream when you wake up takes years of practice.  As a friend of mind pointed out this  is not completely true as anyone can remember a dream now and then it takes practice to remember dreams much more often. 

2. Psychological Manipulation: That is to say the causing of someone else to do something that you want them to for gain.

A: This can be done in the very way they were suggesting in the film put something in
 another mind.  More exactly the first level they wanted to plant the idea that Fisher would not follow his father's footsteps.  Then in the next dream level to plant the idea that I will create something for myself.  Finally in the third dream in a dream the hammer of this process My father does not want me to be him. 

B: This same process of first step, second step and third step can be the process of
behavior change that is the root of helping others in therapy.  In therapy we uncover the emotions, deal with the emotion that creates the poor behavior and then change the behavior by changing the feelings.  This is yet another close reference to psychological teachings. 

C: Hearkening back to the basic relationships in one's life is the statement in the film, "The more powerful the issues the more powerful the catharsis"  What to relationships are the most formidable in one's life? I submit father and mother.  Again this is going back to the basis of the film and the relationship to one's father.

Dreaming and Inception

A: Lucid Dreaming

A simple search on Google will come back with a staggering amount of hits. 
http://alturl.com/2o7wi  This concept is generally accepted as being aware as you are
in a dream that you are dreaming and therefore doing what you want to do in it.  I
believe I have done this occasionally but I cannot peg the time.  I believe many of us have done similar when we wake ourselves as there is something too frightening to
confront in the dream. Many who practice out of body traveling in metaphysics can
take this much further and explain it much further. 

B: Parallel Universes  Some hypothesis are that dreams are alternate universes. 

C: Dreams are open to any thought you have.  This means emotion, idea, change in
 physics or any other thought. 

D: Dreams can be motivators. This is very, very real.  I have heard people
stating that they got the idea first in a dream.

E: Totems.  Dream totems have been real to Native Americans and many other
indigenous people's throughout earth. 

F: You would not suspect manipulation in your dreams.  This is a main concept in the
film and I think it may be sound.

G: Your mind locks you from actually moving in your dream so danger to self is
limited.  This means that your brain paralysis your body from moving do to your
dream so therefore you are free to dream in action.  However this can break down as
in sleep walkers and those with Restless Leg Syndrome which I do have.

H: Dream emotion can be very strong when you waken.  Something not touched in the
film too much but the emotion from a dream can be very strong.  I have felt sad, happy or want to be in another time for full days from this.

I: Dreams are not bound by physics as stated efficiently in the film. 

Miscellaneous thoughts about Inception

A: Many writers have written stories bordering the movie. Stephen King - The Cell and
many, many others many going back to the 1950s by Philip K. Dick

B: LOST! went into shared reality before Inception.

C:  You must have known someone, maybe yourself, that has said oh I first got the idea in a dream.  It is a real concept and it happens with some regularity.