Life-death-stop-stay

Davonte 2021-12-11 08:01:38

The stay of life and death is not Henry’s stay alone, but his stay in Sam’s spirit; this dream is not Henry’s dream alone, but a dream he triggered in Sam’s spiritual world as an invading traumatic element. Like Freud's dream of burning a child.

Because Henry was tortured with guilt before his death, Sam, a passerby who had experienced the whole tragedy, had to construct a whole "Salvation of Redemption" through what Freud called "daytime materials" in his dream. In Lacan’s words, this traumatic, sudden intrusion and nowhere to stay “dialecticalize” the signifier through the movement of the entire signifier system, that is, through the production of other signifiers. Relevant and placed in a certain position, in order to alleviate and reduce its destructive effect on the entire structure: whether it is the relationship between the characters in the dream or the plot design, whether it is his identity as a psychologist or Henry’s life experience, it is actually both It is a link set up by the whole mental mechanism in order to realize this rescue. It is not difficult to see that if Sam is really a psychiatrist in reality, then what he has done is too lame and unprofessional, but the eagerness to save others is true. Because there is a guilt-filled "soul" in his spiritual world (psychoanalysis is a traumatic, "real" appearance or signifier) ​​desperately in need of salvation (like in the dream of a father who fell asleep while guarding the spirit) The little "soul" of his child's suffering is calling for help). Because of this, Sam will not hesitate to help Henry in any way, because Henry’s has now become the most disturbing part of his mental structure (think of "The Cry" deeply eroded Norman Bates It is not difficult to understand the appearance of a horrible mother of personality).

However, the end of the film reveals to us another dimension that has also been revealed by "The Wilderness of the Night", which is also a more critical dimension to a certain extent: people initially hide in dreams in order to escape reality, but in the end they will To escape from the dream and to wake up again to hide in reality, that is to say, there is also some real element or dimension in the dream that is beyond the control of our mental device or signifier mechanism (here is Henry the "other"), Its existence makes it impossible for dreams to be purely therapeutic, but there is also a traumatic side: After all possible efforts, Sam as a psychologist failed to prevent Henry from killing himself on the Brooklyn Bridge by drinking a bomb, and this is exactly what The scene of the accident. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that Sam will wake up from a nightmare right away. Although his original (unconscious) desire was in a dream and used a dream to achieve some remedy, the dream itself has become equally or even more unacceptable. This just confirmed the dream of burning the child. After all, the father could not give the poor child any satisfactory confession in the dream. Since the "debt" he owed was so heavy, he naturally could only rely on it in the end. Woke up in the dream and ended.

As for Stay, I don’t think there is any need for a warm understanding, just like Lila’s "Stay with us!" plea for love. Rather, deep in our hearts, there are scars that cannot be erased like her arms. It is a mark left by the god of death. It does not require any request, and it may always stay with us. "Life and death stay" is a good translation, but it would be better to rewrite it as "life-death-stop-stay" in Heidegger style, because the key here is not the "life and death stay" before Henry's death. For a moment, it means that "death" actually stays in "life", because death itself is the most authentic part of life. And as this film shows, in a sense, even if "life" ceases, "death" will still remain firmly somewhere and become "immortal"...

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Extended Reading

Stay quotes

  • Sam Foster: I've read your file.

    Henry Letham: Well can I read your file?

    Sam Foster: Tell me why you're here.

    Henry Letham: I thought you read the file.

  • Henry Letham: What are you, a substitute shrink?

    Sam Foster: I guess you could call me that.