Expressing your desire could potentially lead to a conflict,
so you often keep quiet and comply whenever a conflict might
arise. This is the undesired behavior.
Later you might feel resentful toward the person to whom
you surrender and possibly do not even know why. The unde-
sired behavior may then produce more undesired feelings.
A second example of this kind of chain reaction is if you
experienced unjust treatment in childhood (the cause for your
undesired inner movie), you might believe that everyone treats
you unfairly most of the time (negative belief). Subsequently
you might often feel angry and hurt (undesired feeling) and be
short and unfriendly to many people (undesired behavior). This
might lead others to treat you badly in return, which confirms
your initial belief and makes you more hurt and angry (more
undesired feelings).
Cognitive therapists teach their clients to look for these
patterns in order to give them a framework for understanding
why they are struggling. This framework helps create some
sense of control over their emotional reactions, and by chal-
lenging the validity of the evidence that the client gives to sup-
port them, helps them change their beliefs. The therapist
encourages the client to act consistently with an alternative
belief to test its possible validity.
For the purpose of using movies to release negative beliefs,
a combination of this cognitive approach and understanding
childhood influences is most effective. Though several thera-
peutic methods work with this combination, I chose to draw
from Morty Lefkoe’s Decision Maker Process because it is a
very concise and well structured approach.^2
Loefkoe points out that the main sources of our beliefs are
interpretations of circumstances earlier in life. Fundamental
beliefs about life and ourself usually are formed before the age
of six. After a belief has been formed, however, we act consis-
tently with it, thereby producing “current evidence” for the
already existing belief. In other words, life becomes a self-ful-
filling prophecy.
“The systematic training
of the mind, the
cultivation of happiness,
the genuine inner
transformation by
deliberately selecting
and focusing on positive
mental states and
challenging negative
states, is possible because
of the very structure and
function of the brain.”
Howard CutlerUsing Movies to Release Negative Beliefs 67