Have you ever wondered why the main character of a film or novel is called the main "character?"
Perhaps it is because the person's character maturity is what must change and grow if there is ever to be a happy ending to the story.
You'll find that what we see in the remarkable new multiple Oscar-winner, Slumdog Millionaire, is the process of psychotherapy itself, flawlessly illustrated.
This film is so filled with symbolism about personal growth, maturity, masculinity, femininity, the process of therapy and psychoanalysis that we could probably talk for months about it.
For those of you who have had absent parents, neglectful parents, abusive parents, or the trauma of loss of a parent, for those of you who come from underprivileged backgrounds, or have been victims of prejudice or racism, classism - or even been told you are not educated or highborn enough to live like others who enjoy health, meaningful work or find love - this drama is for you.
In fact, the film is for the happy and successful person too, and everyone in between.
It's been twenty years since I was a study abroad student in Mumbai, India, and when this film showed the modernization of the city depicted over the same time period - from the tragedy of purposely hobbled and crippled orphans, to the joy and magic of a city and culture so full of diversity, stories, art, and life - I couldn't help but be amazed and surprised how closely the film also metaphorically teaches the value of psychotherapy, my chosen profession decades after experiencing that place.
For those of you who are unacquainted with Slumdog Millionaire, the story is summarized by the following:
"The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much?
Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions.
Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?
When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out.
At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love."
-Fox Searchlight
As the film asks in the beginning - can a poor, uneducated, orphaned boy and girl someday find love and success? Can life be "fair" in terms of "kharma?" One possibility for us to ponder is that "it is written."
"Work" Versus "Fate"
"It is written," like so much of Alexandre Dumas' works, asks us the question of how much of our lives are "fate," "destined," or "predestined." Are we really the masters of our fates, the way we so like to think in the West, or are we tossed to the winds, helpless drifters at the mercy of our genetics, our cultures, our parents beliefs and habits, and all the economic and social forces of the environment?
In therapy, we like to think the former, and strive to steer our own fates through the process of insight, maturity, and personal growth in general.
In the film, "it is written" that boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl are lost, and with enough growth and wisdom, boy and girl find each other again, for life. Yes, even from wretched origins, poverty, war, famine, orphaned and uneducated, we CAN find love, success, healing and happiness.
It is not a magical destiny though, not random luck. After all, some day, most of us do indeed literally become orphans - our parents no longer around to give the comforting answers of childhood.
Instead of randomness or magic, it is the trait of curiosity about ourselves and others - a willingness to grow mature character from our interactions - which will help us transcend the loss of our parents, and someday, find meaning and satisfaction despite our own decline.
Character is Destiny
In the words of philosopher, Epictetus, who once said, "Character is destiny."
What exactly does this mean - this kind of "destiny?" And what does it have to do with psychotherapy, growth, and maturity?
What if our lives are a series of choices, some of which come out constructive and beneficial, while others come out destructive in their resulting effect on ourselves and others.
Our "destinies" in love, work, and life then are entirely dependent on not only the quality of the environment we were born into, the genetics we inherited, and the social, cultural, and economic times we must contend with, but also the quality of our specific choices in life.
Those choices are going to be more and more "on the mark" the higher our level of wisdom, respectful the boundaries we hold, and the more "mindful," (or skilled with what some therapists would call, "Observing Ego") we have. Therefore, the more accurate and creative ways we can capitalize on all we've learned in our life's experiences so far, all gathered together in what one might call "maturity of character."
This is how our character development really is our destiny, and therefore how the process of psychotherapy of the character really can permanently change one's destiny for the better.
It also happens to be what the main character of Slumdog - Jamal - literally shows us through his story. Because, as Jamal finally learns through his horrible traumas and abuse, his losses, dreams, desires, and what only seems like dumb luck, he - like us - is the writer and narrator of his own life's history - the traumas, pains, joys, and lessons of which are the very ground material from which we make our life choices today.
He is called upon to engage in the most televised show in Indian history - to make choices one by one, each one more difficult than the last, and whose outcome will put everything good in life on the line. His choices will determine whether he finds material success. They will determine whether he will find the love he has desired all his life. And they will ultimately determine the answers to questions we all need to know:
- Is it possible to rise out of low economic status?
- Is it possible to overcome a traumatic past, or even to put the lessons of such to good use, perhaps even converting them to strength?
- Is love "destined," in which some of us are just "not meant to be" married, secure in a romance, or find ourselves in the arms of what has been called, "a soulmate?"
- Are we the masters of our fates, or is life all a random experience over which we have no control?
Given that the core of the film is in reference to the characters of The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, and it may then be no surprise to you that the entire film is a modern retold twist on his other beloved work, The Count of Monte Cristo, whose main character was most challenged by the character trait of naivete - a boyish lack of wisdom whose correction led him out of prison, wretchedness, and betrayal to find personal and social justice.
Character Builds Wisdom, and Wise Decisions Build a Life
In decisions we make today, only the wisdom of the lessons of our past will see us through in the absence of the mentoring witnesses to our lives that are our parents.
If we don't remember those lessons, if we haven't lived enough life, or lived "too safe" all along - or let the wounds and traumas of life beat us down instead of fashioning them into the keys to our future destiny - then all is truly lost. We cannot grow, we cannot become full adults, and we cannot win the fruits of a life of maturity - the happy destiny we seek.
Question by question in a review of life by quiz show, as he is interrogated and tortured (nothing new) by the guards who accuse him of cheating, Jamal has the episodes of life which have answered the 1000 rupee question, the 100000 question and the 5 million rupee question.
