Perception Of Peter

This perception later followed by the scene in which the corpse of the murdered girl is shown, conditions and tricks the viewer and the detective to believe that Peter is the killer. There is never any direct evidence to indicate that Peter murdered anyone. Peter’s Schizophrenia is used as an explanation for his strange behavior and for his reason of presumed murder. The idea that the classification affects other people’s perception and expectation of those classified in a certain category is well illustrated through the librarian who when asked if Peter did anything to her, answers “He didn’t do anything but he made me think that he is going to do something bad to me. So are you going to protect us?”(52:43) Peter didn’t do anything; however,
the librarian armed with his abnormal behavior and the newly given knowledge of his schizophrenia adapts her experience to something that could have been dangerous. She had an incomplete perception of the events and took his actions to be part of his irrationality, instead of his motive to find his daughter and stop the radio noises in his head.
Throughout the movie, we see Peter as this schizophrenic doing irrational things like cutting his head and nail. Peter barely talks so the audience can only perceive him through these irrational actions. With this, the audience is left to interpret the parallel killings as Peter’s work. It is only when Peter is with his daughter that he talks freely about his delusions and the audience starts seeing Peter as a rational human. (62:34) It is during his interaction with Nicole that there is no background noises, irrational behavior or delusions. The audience sees only an awkward father trying to connect with his daughter. It is during this moment that we start seeing Peter as a human suffering with Schizophrenia and the pain of separation between him and Nicole. The audience can finally see Peter not through the lens of Schizophrenia but through a more complete lens that incorporate Peter’s motive and sufferings. However, the detective’s perspective is still blurred by the classification of Schizophrenia and he thinks that Peter is undressing Nicole to kill her. (67;47) Even though he doesn’t see Nicole naked nor Peter doing anything to her. Unfortunately, this clouded perception leads to Peter’s death and a heart-wrenching scene in which Peter, as he is dying, tries to calm Nicole down and assure her that he will protect her.(69:30). Later, in the bar, we see the detective understanding that Peter might not have been the serial killer, as he realizes that the evidence he had against him were based on his schizophrenia like the blood in the hotel. The realization, however, was too late because Peter is killed by the detective and the last minutes of the film, the audience sees an eerie scene in which Nicole talks to her dad though the radio, indicating some sort of traumatization.
Classifications are lenses through which individuals view themselves and other.
However, this lens is sometimes blurred because classifications often become an easy explanation of a person’s character and actions. This often creates superficial judgement that does not explore a person’s motive and feelings. As Peter Winter reminds, “For you it’s paranoia. For me it’s reality”. (06:37) It also seems that Peter is affected by the classification less through his perception of himself but more of people’s perception of him. Peter generally does not talk with people, as if he is aware that people will consider him abnormal. His awareness of his abnormality to others is seen in the scene where he opens the door while driving to somehow stop the auditory hallucinations. (51:20) When a car drives by, Peter notices that people are staring so he closes the door. In addition, considering the fact that he was locked in an asylum and deemed too dangerous to be with his daughter, it seems obvious why Peter does not share his suffering, paranoia and desire to be with his daughter. Because the people around him perceived Peter through the schizophrenic lens and its symptoms, they misunderstood Peter and prevented him from reaching out for help. As a result, Peter was misunderstood and eventually
killed.
Classification makes it easier for diagnosis and explanation of people’s behavior. It also, at first, relieves the classified person through the explanation of an unknown behavior. However, people’s actions and character can be sometimes misjudged because they are viewed through the classification. It is important to not forget that people are more than categories and the characteristics that come with those categories. People change and people are different. Classificatory looping accounts for the changing nature of those in the category but it doesn’t account for the effects that classifications can have on those classified.