Make Your Life a Blessing

I don't see the second film mentioned in the article. ?????????

Thanks for your "spot-on" comments praising good therapy in "The Kings Speech". Our culture hungers for the images presented here, not only images of what real therapy looks like, but also for the archetype of the King. With our political world filled with mud-slinging, men and women in our culture today are short on positives images of good parenthood to emulate. The king/queen archetype is the ultimate essence of the father/mother or generative elder. Many action films show the young warrior trying to prove his competence and enter adulthood. And films that do address fatherhood/leadership, often depict fathers as bungling incompetents or rigid fools. This film includes both those aspects of the split king archetype (the incompetent and the rigid tyrant), and then shows development into true generative royal power. It’s empowering to watch, and quenches a deep cultural thirst.

We can think of all the characters in the film as living inside our psyche. The old King George V is dying. This is a metaphor for the death of the hard-sell in our culture, the passing of the “Mad Men” rigid, patriarchal leader. The king is dying. This also represents each individual's giving up their entitlement left over from childhood, or their old failing style of parenting. George is a bully and tyrant within his family, drunk on the power of privilege. When kings go bad-- when parenthood doesn't mature fully-- its generative power splits between immature active and passive poles. George V is the active tyrant. He uses force to protect his fragile sense of self. These are the parents who yell at their teenager because they cannot tolerate the teen's choices being different from their expectations.

George V's active bullying of his sons constellates the opposite passive pole of the undeveloped king/father: the incompetent. Prince Albert (“Bertie”) is frozen by his fear into stuttering inaction. This is the kind of passive father whose kids act out just to “get him going”. The first son Edward VIII abandons his responsibilities of statehood and devotes himself to his twice-divorced fiancée. He can’t quite move out of the realm of the mother and grow up into taking action himself. The ultimate passivity is abdication. These two passive-pole sons are prime candidates for addiction: workaholics, sex addicts, alcoholics. The film does a good job of showing a powerless Edward VIII being ordered to fetch drinks for his fiancée. What an image: who among us hasn’t felt like their true talents are underutilized?

Lionel played by Geoffrey Rush, not only shows us what good therapy looks like. He models true friendship. A strong friendship can tolerate speaking the truth. Lionel teaches the king how speaking up and being heard fully can be done with respect and love, instead of re-enacting the cruelty his father gave to him.

Mirroring the state of our collective psyche stirs things up, but “The Kings Speech” delivers redemption. Bertie works hard to overcome his fears, gets past childhood trauma, and demonstrates the solid dependability and generativity of royalty/parenthood we all long to live ourselves. The film taps into the energy of the King archetype and transmits it to us as inspiration to take on whatever tasks are given to us. “The King’s Speech” is the ultimate feel good movie—it gifts us with a picture of our most powerful self.

Grant Rudolph, MFT, is director of EchoRockTherapyCenter.com, where he works with individuals and Men’s Groups.

I don't dream about actors and actresses They dream about me. I am reality, they are not.
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