I used what I learned in psychology to analyze Inception from several aspects.
First of all, the elements of dreams
In the movie Inception, there is a man-made dream thief team who creates dreams; The division of labor of members has formed a corresponding relationship with the elements of dreams.
Dream Stealer —— The Internal Cause of Dream Formation
Cobb, who steals ideas from other people's dreams, is the reason for creating dreams in movies. He creates dreams for people in order to steal ideas or plant them. But in real life, people dream unconsciously. Freud explained that dreams are the manifestation of the subconscious.
Sentinel-External Incentives before Dreams Form
There is a front-line sentry in the film, who is responsible for the preparatory work such as data collection and information inquiry in the early stage. He provided the previous material for the dream, "thinking day and night." Our dreams are also influenced by real life, and there will be a shadow of real life, so they are often confused with reality in dreams.
Dream builder-dream scene
Responsible for building the general environmental framework of dreams at all levels and partially modifying the details of dream environment. Scenes in dreams can often set the tone of dreams and reflect the mood and mental state of the dreamer.
Pretender-the role of dreams
Be responsible for pretending to be a special person (usually someone close to the target person) in dreams to better influence the target person from the subconscious level. In dreams, Perfect often dreams of other characters. Interpretation of Dreams explains that these characters symbolize the inner role of the master and are the projection of various consciousness.
Phantom of the Opera-Complex in Dream
In the film, Cobb's phantom is his wife. Because of a deep sense of guilt, the wife who died subconsciously occasionally appeared in the dream and interfered with her actions. In our dreams, there are often lingering "phantoms". I think this is often the most concerned and important part of our subconscious, and it is often related to childhood experiences.
The interpretation of dreams in the traditional sense is based on the analysis and explanation of the elements of these dreams. China's Duke of Zhou is a comparison table of elements and connotations summarized by people's living habits and customs.
Second, Cobb's psychological structure
I think the formation and interpretation of dreams are applicable to Freud's theory of psychological structure, but Jung's theory of a newcomer's inner analysis is more detailed.
Jung's analytical psychology is also a theory of holistic personality structure. He called the totality of personality the mind, and thought that the mind is not only a complex and changeable organic whole, but also a distinct and interactive personality structure. It includes three levels: consciousness, individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness.
Consciousness is the only part of human mind that can be directly perceived by individuals. Jung believes that the process of human consciousness development is the process of human's "personalization", and Cobb's dream stealing career once made him a fugitive and an enemy of others. But at the same time, consciousness is constantly enriching, perfecting and shaping new self. Finally, Cobb completed self-redemption and returned to his family.
Individual unconsciousness, Jung believes that unconsciousness is the most influential factor to personality and its development, which includes individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness. Individual unconsciousness is the surface of unconsciousness, which contains all forgotten memories, perceptions and repressed experiences. It is called individual unconsciousness because it is the psychological content associated with individual experience.
An important aspect of individual unconsciousness is in the form of "complex", that is, his mind is strongly occupied by some kind of "psychological problem", which makes him unable to think about anything else, but he is not aware of it. Cobb's plot was a suspicion he planted in his wife's consciousness, which eventually led to her suicide. This is the root of all his psychological problems.
Personality mask, Cobb's personality mask is a calm, capable and rational team leader, so when his inner problems appear, he refuses to tell his partners, but suppresses and hides them.
The shadows of Anima and Cobb are their wives. The most primitive motive force in his consciousness is combined with the darkest and deepest evil tendency, so his heart is greatly distorted, and the psychological problems he faces are complex and difficult.
It seems that Cobb is a person with serious psychological problems, so the story is not only a process of task completion, but also a process of inner healing.
Third, the four-layer world of dream interpretation
Inception created four layers of dreams and went deep into the inner world of the task step by step. The first dream: the target character Fisher hears the news about his father and enters his sensitive area. His conversation with Uncle Pete showed his rejection of his father. Cobb was on a mission, but there was a train in his dream.
The second dream: Fisher found out that Uncle Pete was kidnapped in disguise, and he became suspicious of him, and his views on his father became loose. Cobb's inner guilt for his wife is one step closer, and he has a windowsill for his wife to jump off a building.
The third dream: Fisher came to the snowy mountain. This scene was not set by Inception's team, so it is a true portrayal of Fisher's heart: his relationship with his father is cold, pale and wrapped in his heart. In order to save the lost players, Cobb decided to return to the subconscious world and face his mistakes.
The fourth dream: Fisher was killed and fell into the subconscious world. After being rescued, he came to his father's bed. Opening the safe opened his own heart. The kite inside was unknown to Inception's team, so it was Fisher's own dream. He completed his own redemption and untied his father's heart. In the fourth dream, Cobb told his wife the truth and forgave himself.
This is a contemporary action science fiction film that takes place in the structure of consciousness, and it is also a psychological film that seeks self and heals the soul. Among them, Fisher and Cobb are two obvious clues to psychological healing, but the tycoons, drug dealers and pretenders among them all have an understanding of life in this dream. In particular, the tycoon's performance is more obvious: he has grown up from a shrewd businessman in four dimensions, and he is a pharmacist and a tourist in his own mouth. However, he found the true meaning of life in this trip, which can be seen from his last words and the eyes after waking up in his third dream.
People pay more and more attention to psychological problems, and there are more and more movies about psychological and conscious activities. The animated film Inside Out, which was released not long ago, vividly shows the joys and sorrows of human beings with different characters. It can be seen that psychology is no longer a boring science in textbooks, but is more deeply and directly integrated into people's lives.