play with friends from school or visit their houses. Having
been married happily for twenty-five years, she raised two
wonderful children.
The next day, on a walk, she tells her girlfriend about the
article and a memory that came back to her after reading it. She
remembered being seven years old and thinking that there was
something very different in her home from how it was sup-
posed to be. Now both women wondered how she could have
known at that young age that something was seriously wrong
at home. How did she know that parents can and should be dif-
ferent from her out-of-control mother?
As they talked, suddenly Cindy remembered that anything
she knew about families in general was from watching movies
and shows on television. While mom was getting drunk or
sleeping it off, there was nothing else to do except sit in front
of the television. She was a little embarrassed when she shared
this with her friend because everyone seemed to be against kids
spending too much time watching television these days. But
Cindy is now convinced that watching many different kinds of
films helped her intuitively understand the difference between
healthy and dysfunctional families when she was a child.
Through movies she also learned about a big range of feel-
ings that she almost never experienced at home, such as love,
joy, trust, and compassion. Her mother demonstrated anger
almost exclusively. Now Cindy thinks that watching movies as
a child helped her not repeat her mother’s mistakes later in her
own life. Some movies taught her hope and courage. She espe-
cially remembers watching The Wizard of Oz (1939)whenever
she had an opportunity.
Even now, when she feels afraid or depressed because she
faces career or health challenges, Cindy watches films that
help her find courage. She was surprised when she noticed that
the heroes in these movies were merely adult versions of the
characters in films she had seen as a child. The basic structure
of their plots and their allegorical messages were almost the
same.
“Fairy tales deal in
literary form with the
basic problems of life,
particularly those inherent
in the struggle to achieve
maturity.”
Bruno
BettleheimHow Movies Support Healing and Transformation 23