When a murder is no longer anonymous.
After the brutal murder of George Floyd by an American police officer on May 25, 2020, and the successive anti-racism demonstrations that have spread to various American states and other countries in the world, discussions about the rates of violence against African Americans, not only in the United States United, as in many other countries, had the attention of the press from all over the world.
Brazil has an alarming rate of murder of African descendants, many of whom are children and adolescents, some even murdered inside their own homes by the police who should protect them.
It is worth mentioning, with immense grief, that the vast majority of murders committed against black people, including that of a Rio de Janeiro’s city councilor Marielle Franco, brutally shot together with her driver Anderson Pedro Mathias Gomes usually go unpunished.
The image of a murder being filmed live, while an astonished audience watched everything, helplessly, without being able to do anything to prevent it, may have been the trigger for an indignation that already existed to manifest itself vehemently.
Every situation of abuse, whether of power, emotional or sexual, makes use of the clash of opinions between the words of the victims and the executioners, but in this case, the dramatic image of a man dying asphyxiated while saying he could not breathe, left no doubt about who was the victim and who was the executioner.
The fact that a white policeman murdered a black man in front of a camera, in a sadistic and arrogant manner, apparently without any fear of suffering reprisals, opened the badly healed wounds of a shameful history of slavery that devastated the United States, Brazil , and so many other countries, leaving structural racism in our cultures, as difficult to fight as it is to become aware of.
The choice of the movie Get Out! [1] or Corra! as it became known in Brazil, it occurs at a time when traumatic wounds arising from prejudice and racial segregation invaded the therapeutic process of many analysands, bringing up wounds that the individual himself had never been aware of before. The same thing happened when reports of sexual abuse became more common and their victims started to be minimally heard, several people who had suffered abuse in the past were only aware of the abuse when they identified themselves with the reports of the other victims, starting to validate their own memories and feelings of discomfort, reactivating the traumatic consequences of abuse in their lives.
When we recovered our capacity to be indignant, we realized that conformism and non-action had become complicit in disrespect and atrocities.
Let us be indignant!
Get out!
Although the film's title was translated to - Corra! in Portuguese, its meaning in English is more emphatic than this, and it can mean - Escape! Get out of here! When faced with the scene in which Logan screams desperately at Chris - Get out! we understand the true meaning of the title chosen for the film.
Nor can we fail to think about the policy of racial segregation where black people could not, until very recently, attend the same places as white people, being literally put to run, under punches, kicks and more. This scene, which gives the film its title, gives voice to the feeling that a black person may not be safe in an environment dominated by white people, and that it would be better to escape from there while there is time. Remember the movie Green Book [2] , where a famous African American pianist could not dine in the elegant restaurant where he was the main attraction?
The kidnapping and the rabbit symbol
The film begins with the kidnapping of a young black man, who walks alone down a suburban street, while talking on the phone to someone who appears to be a date. He seems to be instructed on the way to go, but these indications seem to leave him it even more lost. The first scene already indicates that the young man had been taken into a trap.
He is chased and thrown in the trunk of a car by a man who wears a helmet on his head, which we later found out to be Jeremy Armitage. All of this occurs to the sound of the song “Run, rabbit! Run!
The rabbit symbol [3] , one of the symbols of fertility and rebirth, associated with the capacity for eternal regeneration and self-sacrifice, is also a symbol of immortality and love. Strange soundtrack for a kidnapping, but totally relevant to the plot of the film.
Several aspects of the prejudice against black people are explored in this film, portraying the atavistic prejudice built by the slave culture, and are portrayed in various behaviors of white people towards Chris in this film:
1- Black people are better lovers.
2- Black people are stronger, having a privileged physique.
3- Black people do not age.
4- Black people are more resistant to pain; (several black people were used as guinea pigs for surgeries without anesthesia ...)
5- Black people are more fertile than whites.
6- Black people have the strongest and most beautiful teeth; (several slaves had their teeth pulled out and used in strange dentures by their owners in the colonial era ...)
Of course, this list can grow in a fabulous way, feel free to add what I left out.
We can notice that several racist comments, in fact, hide envy and admiration, and a certain projection of a heroic and divine character, subverted to situations of abuse, control and attempted submission - if I cannot have the characteristics that I admire in black people, I will submit them to my desire and my will, revealing a pathological envy of the one who despises the different other.
The disappearance of black people does not receive the same attention as that of white people, just as the judgment of crimes allegedly committed by black people tends to be much more rigid in relation to the punishment attributed, when comparing these same crimes when committed by white people. In this sense, black people would be much more vulnerable to any type of violence, and their aggressors would not even be punished for that, in a clear allusion to the slavery philosophy in which slave masters had the power of life and death over the slaves that belonged to them, or husbands and fathers, who held (or still do, in various societies, whether declared or not ...) the power of life and death over their wives and children.
Next, we have another young man, another young black man, a photographer, Chris Washington, who reluctantly agrees to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage.
She claims that the parents are not racist and that he is her first black boyfriend.
Chris's friend Rod Williams tries to convince him that it is stupid for him to agree to go to the home of a white girl's parents. Upon hearing this, Rose implies that Rod may be interested in her, so she tries to keep the relationship from getting closer. In a previous scene, we see Rose buying the couple's breakfast, and when she realizes that the man behind her is black, she starts to creep up on him. From the first scenes we have hints that there is something wrong with Rose’s interest in Chris, or that she might have a special interest in black men, as described in prejudice number 1.
The running over of the deer and its symbolism
Rose ends up running over a deer, which reminds Chris of his mother's death by being run over.
When a policeman comes to check the accident, Rose is very nervous when he asks for Chris's documents, as if implying that the policeman wants his documents for racist reasons, but it turns out that her behavior looks like a staging of an anti-racist speech unconvincing. In fact, she prefers that the police officer is unaware of Chris's identity.
Running over the deer gives the film the tragic tone. Since the deer [4] is a symbol of sublimation, a representative of spiritual superiority and purity, a symbol of fertility, gentleness, softness, grace, intuition, kindness and peace, and of a connection between humans and the gods, its brutal trampling indicates that these values represented by it may be being massacred, both by Rose and by her family.
As if it was not enough for Rose to run over the deer on the road, Rose's father, Dean, displays a deer head as a trophy on the wall, showing a real scorn for the animal's death on the road.
The trauma of Jesse Owens' victory and deep-seated prejudice
In the midst of a forcibly friendly reception, disguised racist comments are being exposed in such a cynical and overbearing way that it is difficult to overcome the malaise caused. Dean refers to his father as an athlete who lost to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics qualifiers, just as Hitler was trying to prove the superiority of the Aryan race.
Owens' victory was a very traumatic reality shock to the fantasy of Aryan superiority that underpinned Nazism and so many of the slave and prejudiced actions we have today. However, the prominence that black athletes tend to have in sports, instead of softening or confronting prejudice, has exacerbated prejudice in an even more covert way. Even today, the inclusion of black people in sports and music is accepted, but their entry into academic and political life has not been exactly stimulated. That is, they continue to serve for leisure and recreation, in a continuous objectification of bodies, lives, talents and creativity.
When Dean refers that he would vote for Obama a third time if he could, he does not emphasize the fact that Barak Obama was, in my humble view, the best president the United States has ever had, but uses a standard phrase, trying to conceal racism, a fact that is repeated throughout the film.
The qualities attributed to black people throughout Chris's visit to Rose's family seem like a parade of prejudiced phrases disguised as aberrant acceptance.
When presenting the house to Chris, Dean points out that the door that would open to the floor below should not be opened, because that room was moldy or something. This prohibition recalls the Blue Beard tale, and so many other myths and fairy tales where there is an area of the house that is forbidden to access, the meaning of which generally refers to the hiding of a great secret, usually related to the shadow of an individual or group . This forbidden room, in fact, hides a captivity and a clandestine operating room.
Most of the time, the forbidden rooms in a house symbolize unconscious or reprehensible aspects by society and must be kept out of the reach of those who do not share the same secret or their ideologies. This is how several secret clubs and brotherhoods work [5] , including Ku Klux Kan and several Nazi groups that still exist in many countries, including Brazil.
Rose's parents, Dean and Missy, are, respectively, neurosurgeon and hypnotherapist, professions that prove to be complementary, as well as the participation of their children, Rose and Jeremy. This family seems totally in tune, where the role of one complements the role of the other, and all aligned with a common ideal: Rose and Jeremy attract the victims, Rose by seduction and Jeremy by force. Rose was responsible for attracting Georgina and Walter, both house employees, who later reveal themselves to have received their grandparents' brains. It is interesting to note that Dean's parents are given a new chance to stay alive, but do not assume a prominent role in the family, as in the case of Logan, who takes on the role of husband of a white woman 30 years older.
Georgina and Walter also don't seem happy with their fate, and the process of implanting part of people's brains into younger bodies makes them unnatural, reminiscent of the replicas of women in the film The Stepford Wives [6] .
When trying to immortalize or control a human soul, either by creating a robotic imitation or by hypothetical surgery on someone's brain, as in this case, they make Georgina and Walter neither one thing nor the other, that is to say , they are no longer who they were, nor the elderly who were transplanted, nor those who donated their bodies involuntarily. These become grotesque hybrids, where the inner desires and identities are in eternal conflict with the implanted identities.
The relationship of submission and control between masters and slaves
This leads us to the false submission of slaves and people in conditions of slavery or emotional abuse. Part of the personality tries to adapt, often for the sake of survival, to the situation of submission and control, and part of the personality remains in a constant state of revolt.
The Stockholm syndrome seems to be relevant when we refer to this type of relationship. Love and hate, desire and repulsion, admiration, and envy alternate in an endless sadomasochistic dance.
Aggressions happen in a veiled way, after all, it is necessary to keep the executioner satisfied, in order to avoid possible retaliation.
Retaliation generally cannot be avoided for good behavior, children who are victims of narcissistic parents know this very well. We must not forget that anyone who thinks he has someone wants to keep him or her under his control at any cost, for this reason, mistreatment and abuse must be tactically well planned.
Many slave masters knew very well what techniques of torture to use in order to punish, but without losing their object of investment. The same behavior can be found in abusive marital relationships, by pedophiles and narcissistic parents.
The other as an object of possession and desire
The objectification of relationships, whether due to race, color, gender and or ideology prejudice brings ambivalent feelings, where at the same time the subject feels powerful in having the possession of this individual, but also becomes dependent on the same individual who does to feel special, whether through submission, control, or distorted affection, contaminated by the shadow, which grows between them.
We can compare this feeling to the feeling of possession by some object, be it a vase, a watch or something like that, this object is used, displayed, often despised, but we get upset if it breaks or is taken from us.
Slavery turns human beings into objects, and this objectification is perhaps one of the obstacles that still makes the end of prejudice so difficult today. Who would like to feel equally important with an object? This is for black people, women, children, LGBTQ, and immigrants of all backgrounds at all times.
People who have had the role of taking care of functions considered minor or inferior throughout history are not considered worthy of occupying the status of an “equal”, otherwise those who consider themselves superior consider that they are losing their superiority status.
It should be noted that slavery has existed since ancient Egypt, where prisoners of war were condemned to slave labor. Even at this time, there were already slaves who were destined for manual labor, whether domestic or construction and things like that, as well as prostitution and, in some cases, as teachers and scribes, since some of these slaves came from a social condition similar or even superior to their owners.
When, at the time of the slave trade from Africa, these people belonged to unknown cultures and religions on the European continent, and for this reason, they were considered inferior. To paraphrase Caetano Veloso [7] , Narciso finds ugly what is not a mirror ... [8] and these cultural differences, when classified as inferior, facilitated the objectification of the other, not only because it is different, but for not serving as a mirror.
Taking the other as a slave or subject has been an important part of history, an attitude justified by the most varied religious and philosophical reasons, denouncing a collective historical sociopathy, previously exercised as if it were part of normality, now exploited in a dark and criminal way.
Slavery remains part of our society, as we cannot forget the trafficking of women and children for the purpose of prostitution and pedophilia, so often covered up by great political and religious leaders, not to mention slave labor, still a sordid reality in several corners of Brazil and the World, often even within the big centers under the command of citizens hidden behind a most respectable persona.
Awareness of prejudice as a form of protection
The illusion that prejudice does not exist makes the victim hostage to dangers he cannot foresee or imagine.
The illusion that we are in a situation of comfort makes us helpless prey, and Rod, Chris's friend, represents this contact with reality, albeit partially naive, when he reports Chris's disappearance to the police.
He is naive to believe that in the presence of other black police officers, he would be heard. These policemen, in fact, seem to have adhered, even if unconsciously to the systemic racism of which they are victims, a behavior very similar to the captains of the forest [9]who chased and captured the escaped slaves, and were also charged with watching and torturing them, preventing the white masters from doing the dirty work.
The cops think Chris is believing in unrealistic conspiracy theories and make him a laughingstock. Therefore, the disappearance of both Chris and André are not taken seriously.
But Rod is much more aware of the dangers of structural racism in which they live. He is an agent for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), a body created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack. However, he describes himself as an immigration control agent, aware that the fight against terrorism has become a tool for migratory control. We must not forget that immigrants would be the targets of prejudice at the time, in a response contrary to the globalization itself.
Most of these immigrants, many of whom are illegal, end up being subjected to working conditions equal to or similar to slave labor, and their presence is usually tolerated with a “blind eye” by the elites, who cannot dispense with the work offered by these individuals.
Immigrants today represent, for the economy of rich countries, the same as slaves represented in the past, cheap labor, without rights, only duties. Large companies use their employees' immigration illegality, or their ignorance of the laws, to perpetuate submission.
Rod cites André's disappearance as a possible case of kidnapping for purposes of sexual exploitation, which is true, as André takes over the life of Logan King, married to a white woman about 30 years older than him. This is still sexual slavery, isn't it?
The brain transplantation process is also remarkably interesting, since the personality of, shall we say, owner of the body, is not totally extinguished, but is left in a deep place inside the brain.
The process does not aim to completely eliminate the characteristics of the involuntary donor, as these special characteristics make it desirable. Chris is sold to Jim Hudson at a macabre auction.
Jim is a blind art dealer, who admires Chris's work as a photographer, and declares, before surgery, that he wants to see the world through Chris's eyes, which makes us suspect that Chris's kidnapping, like the previous ones, may have been ordered by potential customers.
The big difference between this horror film and The Stepford Wives is that, in this case, the real person from whom you want to extract some talent or ability is minimally preserved, while in Stepford Wives the wives were replaced by robots that only imitated the human behavior. Of course, in neither case is the replacement perfect, since all the victims of this procedure called Contemple the Coagula look hypnotized and artificial.
It is also interesting to note the fact that Chris's camera flash temporarily removes André from his host personality, Logan.
Remembering that Missy's hypnosis process involves putting the victim's personality “sunk”, that is, unconscious, this brings us to the movie Split [10] , where Kevin's dissociated personalities need the light [11] to have access to conscience and to be able to manifest. In this flash of consciousness in which André awakens, he tells Chris, visibly desperate - Get out! Or Get out of here! because he knows that Chris will be the next victim, with a fate similar to his.
I will not go into the discussion of the methods of hypnosis or neurological surgery covered in the film, as they are part of the symbolic language of the director, which brilliantly translates the process of capturing, subjugating and brainwashing slaves to be indoctrinated during the film.
The first thing that was done when a shipment of slaves arrived at the port, was to separate them so that members of the same tribe, religious beliefs or family group would not be together.
The cultural depersonalization tactic is part of the domination process, which is widely used in Catholic Crusades and in colonialist invasions in general. Imposing religion has been one of the most important, or probably the most important, of all forms of domination and control of a nation. This process was an important part of the colonization and conquest process, mainly in Brazil and Mexico.
Isolating the individual from peers, beliefs and culture makes them more susceptible to the influences of culture and the domination of their new owners (or the countries that receive immigrants and refugees).
To what extent the resistance among immigrants to adapt to the habits and customs of the new country in which they live would not be an unconscious attempt to not lose their identity, a fact that bothers the countries that receive these immigrants, which so often end up becoming focusing on ghettos for many decades, sometimes taking up to 3 generations so that an integration that respects both cultures can begin to establish itself.
Contemplate o Coagula
The Armitage family seems totally lost in the search for the individuation process. Like the ancient alchemists, they seek the philosopher's stone of individuation in the transmutation of matter, that is, in the fusion of two minds in one body, hoping that Coagulatio occurs in a manner determined by the egoic and narcissistic function of the desire to be immortalized in a body considered superior.
The Armitage's apparent sense of superiority vanishes in the obsession with seduction (Rose) domination (Dean and Jeremy) and seduction and control (Missy). It is clear that the unprotected situation of black victims in relation to white victims can be considered a facilitating factor in choosing, after all, in the racist imagination, conscious or not, black lives do not really matter. The film explores this in the most sadistic way possible, after all, the physical attributes of the captured black individual matter, but their personality, that is, their souls, are disposable. The film's slavery philosophy goes beyond the control and dominance of that enslaved being, but it wants to change its soul, replacing it with their own, in a process of domination even more cruel than anything that could be imagined.
The alchemical process of Coagulatio that this sect preaches implies the infusion of a soul (brain) into another body, coagulating the characteristics of that desired body to the soul of the buyer of that piece (piece was as the slave traders referred to them, their merchandise).
I believe that this symbolic process represented by the film has already been addressed in some way in the previous pages, when I refer to the theft of the soul and the personal and cultural identity to which slaves (and now many immigrants) were and are subjected, and that perpetuates itself in an insane process of adapting to a culture that does not accept the different.
Marie Louise von Franz, in her book Alchemy [12] , refers to the alchemical process of Coagulatio in the Sun’s Letter for the Crescent Moon [13] , however, this attempt to imitate the alchemical process represented by the fusion surgery between body and soul is not complete, as there is neither voluntary nor reciprocal surrender. There is no possibility of individuation without the sacrifice of ego needs, in the case of buyers of black bodies, nor of individuals who had their souls forcibly removed, that is, in an eternal dissolution.
Jung says - The solution of the body is the coagulation of the spirit . [14] The Armitage family seem to want to perpetuate their own existence in a process of forced reincarnation in an admired and despised body, at the same time.
Every prejudice implies a shadow projection, and in the case of the Armitage family, and their macabre surroundings, several positive and desirable qualities are identified in their black victims, such as beauty, physical strength, sensitivity, overcoming and sensuality, to the point of wanting to merge yourself with them.
Patriarchal dynamism is prevalent throughout the film's plot, where values such as status, achievement, performance, and self-control are overrated. It is clear, in this way, why the symbols of the Deer and the Rabbit are used in a way that refers to the sacrifice of the feminine and the spirit. The spirit, or spiritualized ideals, such as love, art, and the relationship where there is reciprocity of affection and respect are vilified.
According to the Armitage's point of view, Chris needs to be fixed, that is, he needs to eliminate his smoking habit before undergoing the Coagula procedure.
There is a purification fantasy, very similar to what our Vice President Mourão referred to a few months ago, as the whitening of the race (whitening of the race implies giving values, and different and gradual prejudices, to the various skin tones between white and black , a term widely used in Brazil), which may not be as well known in other countries, but which classifies miscegenation between whites and blacks as favorable or unfavorable, depending on the predominant the desirable white or black characteristics in this genetic communion.
Something remarkably similar to what the Coagula procedure seeks, that is, I can have, at the same time, the black characteristics that interest me, and also the white ones that I prefer, discarding what does not serve me.
In the film in question, whitening would come through the soul, or as another racist phrase quite common here in Brazil says, he or she is black outside, but with a white soul. This statement implies that:
1- The recognition that a black person has a soul, what wasn’t considered possible in the past.
2- For this reason it could be equated to a white person.
This would justify the fact that a black man could possibly be tolerated by a racist white; and in the case of our film in question, this was taken literally.
Bibliography
BERTOLOTTO SCHNEIDER, Solange - The Truth in the Analytical Process
VON FRANZ, ML - Alchemy - Introduction to Symbolism and Psychology
JUNG, CG - CW 9 Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
CW 12 Psychology and Alchemy
CW 13 Alchemical Studies
CW 14 Mysterium Conjunctionis
The Book of Symbols - Reflections on Archetypal Images - Taschen
REDIKER, Marcus – O Navio Negreiro - Ed. Companhia das Letras 2011
[1] Get out! 2017 film, written and directed by Jordan Peele - the synopsis is available on several internet sites. [2] Green Book, 2019, directed by Peter Farrely [3] The Book of Symbols [4] Ibid [5] The Truth in the Analytical Process, ch. 13. Secret, the hidden Truth [6] The 1975 film The Stepford Wives gained a new shot in 2004. The film is partially analyzed in this article: https://www.solangeschneiderpsicologia.com/post/2017/11 / 30 / misogyny-lives-in-details-who-has-power-over-remote-control
[7] Caetano Veloso, important Brazilian singer and composer [8] Phrase from the music Sampa, by Caetano Veloso [9] The captains of the forest were often free and poor men, but they could also be the mestizo son of the slave owner with some slave, who had generally been raped. We see here the correlation between prejudice and poverty . [10] Split, 2016 film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, whose analysis can be found at this link: https://en.solangeschneiderpsicologia.com/post/2017/04/10/fragmentado [11] This aspect of the comparison of light with the awakening of consciousness is analyzed in Split, link above. [12] Alchemy, von Franz [13] When we go up in the order of the Sheikhs, or the old men, the glowing substance of thy light will be united with my light and you and I will be like the mixture of wine and sweet water, and I will stop my flow and afterwards I will be wrapped up in your blackness and that will have the color of black ink, but after your dissolution and my coagulation, when we have entered the house of love, my body will coagulate and I will be in my emptiness . [14] CW 14, page 516