Cinema Therapy — Charlyne Gelt, Ph.D.

Late Night:
Shadow and Transformation

“It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.” ― Amanda McBroom

Psychologists search for what makes people change. Often, as in the film Late Night, ordinary human interaction does the trick. However, "interaction with others" as a prescription for healing is easier said than done, especially when aspects of one's "shadow" self may block the capacity to have a successful relationship. Generally, one is unaware that a problem even exists! Reasons for the blocks are locked in the murky waters of the unconscious. Late Night is a good example of how the characters' dynamics and a basic understanding of the psychological concepts of "shadow" and "self-object," can make film viewing much more interesting.

Shadow and Transformation
Briefly, "shadow" is a word coined by CG Jung to sum up what each of us fears and despises and cannot accept in ourselves. This is not to say that a low evaluation of self is correct; it could be something that was handed down to us from our family of origin ― core beliefs about certain qualities, for example. So, anything we perceive (correctly or not) as "not right" within us may be "shadow" content.

It has been said that if "you spot it, you got it." Like Katherine, most of us are blind to our own psychological shadow, which we often project onto others ― our partners, our parents, even strangers. Interestingly, we project our positive as well as our perceived negative traits. To others our shadow characteristics may be "as plain as the nose on your face," hard to "own."

It's difficult to look in the mirror and see what lies dormant until a crisis knocks us down a peg. Look at the character defects in others that frustrate you the most. "Am I seeing myself in them?" Katherine clearly saw these defects in others but could not look in the mirror until Late Night was on the chopping block.

Synopsis
Late Night stars Emma Thompson as talk show host Katherine Newbury, the sole female to have dominated the late-night comedy circuit for over thirty years. Workplace crisis and circumstances place Katherine together with a new young "diversity hire," Molly Patel, played by Mindy Kaling (who also wrote and produced the film). Hovering in the film's background is Katherine's detached husband, Walter (John Lithgow) with whom she leads a very private life. Though suffering from a debilitating disease, Walter is Katherine's nurturing and steadfast supporter, her advocate, and her critic.

Katherine sees the deficits in others, not in the self. She needs to control others so puts her staff on the defensive using put downs, criticism, and fear of being fired. Katherine presents as a rigid, harsh, iron-fisted, cold, arrogant character, elitist, out of touch, and unbending. But as a talk show host, she has developed a long-term kinship with her audience, a community of fans who resonate with her style, love her sharp comedy, and her biting humor which shields her deep, inner sense of inadequacy. She uses her Late Night comedy routine as a stand-up to cover her depression, and surrounds herself with mirroring "self-objects," meaning employees who idealize her, mimic her perspective, and her opinions, and men who admire and validate rather than confront her. Unable to tolerate differentness, she fires employees who defy her authority. Unaware of her own self-absorbed style, she even accuses a younger generation of writers of being narcissistic.

Workplace Crisis
Late Night opens with a workplace crisis brewing: Though Katherine's office is lined with Emmy Awards, her ratings have taken a nosedive. The very talent, the caustic humor that always protected her from herself, is no longer working and now her previously welcoming audience feels she has become out-of-touch with them and with the changes in the world around her.

As Katherine begins to face the reality that her legendary show is on the chopping block, she is reluctantly forced to take action which includes a good, hard look at those "shadow" parts of herself she would rather deny (Jung). When her all-male staff informs her that they need to address some "diversity issue to help the show, Katherine, not known to be a fan of other women, orders her right-hand man Brad (Denis O'Hare) to hire a woman. This turns out to be Molly Patel who just happened to be interviewing with Brad that day. She is inexperienced, but because she's not only a woman ― buts a woman of color, she gets hired on the spot. Now the big question is, how will this naive, starry-eyed outsider survive as the only female woman of color in their all white, male writer's room?

Not surprisingly, Molly is initially given a hard time when she first enters the writer's room. Though paying lip service to diversity, it's clear that nobody wants her there. There isn't even a chair for her, so she overturns a trash can and sits on it! When she brings her Quality Control experience to bear, suggesting ways to improve the "Late Night" show, both she and her ideas are resented.

Molly's fresh perspective and genuine character earns her respect, chipping away at Katherine's cold protective shell. Katherine's public and private worlds are turned upside down, encouraging her to stop hiding behind a facade of rigidity and emotional isolation. It draws out her own "gifts," giving rise to the asset within her "shadow" side.

Now let's take a look at the psychological dynamics and interactions of Late Night's characters from a depth perspective.

Psychological Implications
Late Night is billed as a comedy, but subtle tongue-in-cheek satirical commentary woven into the dialogue speaks to challenges in real life situations encountered by women in all walks of life ― issues of class, gender, age, sexual intonations, the #Me-Too movement, assumptions about men, women, power, and diversity are discussed.

Katherine has a need for validation and approval to cover her depression and sense of inadequacy. When Humpty-Dumpty falls off the wall, all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men can’t put him together again. And, when Katherine’s show is cancelled, she, too, falls apart. This means death to the old role, the old coping strategy of using comedy to cover her depression. This turn of events forces Katherine to look at her shadow — which blows in the room in the person of Molly, a young diversity hire Molly's character is a metaphor for one who awakens the "elephant in the room." Her presence creates hostility and anxiety because she represents change in the system. It then bridges a coming together of the opposing characteristics of two women, separated by culture and generations, as they bond in a common goal, the subtleties of comedy itself. The mutual support and nurturing between these opposing aspects has unexpected positive consequences as they struggle to find a handhold in a culture that doesn't want them to succeed. Eventually, it pushes Katherine towards a new stage of emotional maturity.

Katherine and Molly each transform the other. Opportunity for change is always knocking, whether prompted by life crisis, illness, relationship issues, or workplace pressures. When Katherine's entire career was threatened, she was forced to deal with her beastly shadow issues (in the form of Molly). Such events may evolve into therapeutic opportunities and transformative experiences, and they pop up all around us every day. We bear witness to Katherine's new aliveness as she comes to grips with the dis-owned aspects of herself. She stops hiding her painful struggle with depression, builds emotional connection with her coworkers and peers, repairs her marriage, and embraces the diversity within herself. This is the goal of the journey of individuation (Jung), wholeness, consciousness, a coming to terms with those split-off, repressed, pushed-down, shadowy aspects of the self.

Narcissistic Wounding and Self-Object:
As a poetic metaphor, "All the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again." Like Humpty Dumpty, Katherine feared falling apart. To keep herself glued together, she needed mirroring, validation, and approval which she satisfied by surrounding herself with an adoring audience and yes-men in order to maintain a cohesive sense of self.

We all need affirmation of our value, to be the gleam in somebody's eye. In Kohut's self-psychology (Kohut 1971; 1977; 1984) these are understood as self-object needs. If such normal childhood dependency needs are not met from the parental environment, the developing child experiences a narcissistic wound. Thus, the drive for a self-object in adulthood, hanging on to one who keeps us feeling glued together and enhances our sense of well-being. Katherine's "fan base" met her self-object needs, including her need for Twinship, kinship. This is an internal need for sameness with others, being understood by "someone like me," such as a community of people of shared beliefs. Katherine also needed to feel Idealized, to carry importance, to feel respected, admired, wise, and strong. These things brought her a source of soothing when anxious or stressed. As a successful stand-up comedian her unconscious needs got met.

Katherine's husband, Walter, was her adversarial self-object ― both supportive and confirming and opposing force who allowed opposition to rear its ugly head. Both Katherine and Molly met the need for efficacy ― they had an effect on each other, empowering both: "If I can elicit a response, I must be somebody."

These self-object needs are continuously unfolding as the process of individuation evolves.

Charlyne Gelt, Ph.D. (PSY22909) is a clinical psychologist who practices in Encino. She leads Women's Empowerment Groups that help women learn the tools to move beyond self-destructive relationship patterns. She may be reached at 818.501.4123 or cgelt@earthlink.net. Her office address is 16055 Ventura Blvd. #1129 Encino, CA 91436.