Repression In The Film Inception

Reality is the world or state of things as they actually exist. A person’s reality is made up of the brain interpreting stimuli from the 5 senses; from them the brain creates a scene one perceives as life. Reality, although formed through the basic building blocks of stimuli reception, is personal and individualized as reception varies from perception. These variations alter attitudes and outlooks on the basic notion of life itself. The idea of reality is challenged by the concepts presented in the movie Inception. Through the main character’s interactions with reception and perception, the viewer learns of crucial aspects of psychology including repression, the importance of sleep and dreams, as well as the perception and cognition of the
In the scene previously described, evidence of repression is undeniable. Dom’s dream world is separated into 12 different floors, each a different level of regret. The bottom floor contains his wife Mal. This shows how he has repressed her by placing her at the lowest point, locking her into his lowest level of consciousness so she does not end up coming out. A major factor of Freud’s description on repression is how repression is very different from elimination. Repression suppresses the feelings rather than gets rid of them completely, making repression relatively incomplete (Myers, p.g. 483). Freud believed that repressed urges emerge in dream (Myers, p.g. 483). The movie supports this theory as in the real world of Dom he does not allow his feelings and pain to show, however in his dream world, vision’s of Mal are everywhere. This is especially noticeable in the scenes where they are infiltrating Fischer’s mind. As they go deeper into Fischer’s mind, concurrently the defensive barriers in Dom’s mind get weaker. This allows Mal to sabotage and distract Dom because without the repression barriers holding her back, she cannot be controlled. Denial is another defensive barrier present in later parts of the movie however most prevalent in Dom’s subconscious in the form of Mal. Denial is the rejection of information to protect the person from real events, and in Mal’s case it’s the denial of reality
The first belief is more from an evolutionary standpoint. Sleep helps protect us as with our ancient ancestors trying to hunt and gather at night is much more perilous than during the day. Some believe that sleep is ameliorating, restoring, and repairing brain tissues. It is also possible sleep helps us restore and rebuild memories, or aid in our creative thinking process. The final theory is simply that we need sleep to properly grow and develop (Myers, p.g. 185). The most likely reason for sleep is a combination of these theories. Sleep is broken down into five different stages, stages 1 and 2 are characterized as light sleep, 3 and 4 as deep sleep, and stage 5 is Rapid Eye movement sleep (REM sleep). In REM sleep, brain wave activity is almost the same as consciousness, and the most vivid dreams occur here (Myers, p.g. 185). During REM sleep the body releases a combination of the hormone glycine and the neurotransmitter GABA to paralyze the body (Pappas, 2012). The purpose of paralysis during REM sleep is because the dreams are so vivid, without paralysis it is most likely that the body will try and reenact the events occurring. This could cause damage to the body and to those around so humans have adapted to having sleep