Local NHS services in Sussex and Brighton & Hove have pooled their resources to try and offer psychological and emotional support to individuals who have been affected by the events of this past weekend at the Shoreham Air Show. There were a large number of people who attended the event official who may be feeling a heavy emotional or psychological impact at having witnessed the accident. There will also be those who lived near by or were watching the event from outside the official grounds, or event people who happened to be in the area at the time. 

Having witnessed traumatic events it can be common to have flashbacks to the events that could come at any time and come with distressing feelings, thoughts or emotions. They may affect people's ability to sleep if they are suffering nightmares. Some people can find that they are easily startled for a time after the event. The NHS Sussex Partnership have created a webpage that features advice to help while these normal reactions slowly reduce. They also list telephone numbers to call for local services set up specifically to help those struggling with the impact of witness the traumatic events. This service, created to avoid the usual waitlist for psychological services on the NHS, will continue to operate until the 18th of September.

If you were visiting the area from outside of Sussex and are feeling deeply affected by the event of the weekend you can access assistance through your GP surgery. Or, if you wish, you can find other qualified counsellors and therapists like myself through the BACP therapist finder.

From this short history it is obvious that Pixar have had some powerful bedfellows that have assisted them in become the powerhouse of cinema they are today. Some of the headlines, reports, and rumours that have been published surrounding these relationships were certainly intriguing to want to write about from the point of view of an Integrative Therapist. Especially some of the tension that is implied in the relationship between Pixar and, their now parent company, Disney. However, what inspired me to begin researching the company in the first place was a recent trip to the cinema to watch their latest release, Inside Out.

The majority of the action in Inside Out takes place within the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley during the time of her family moving from her hometown in Minnesota to San Francisco because of her father’s work. It is arguable whether this then makes the main protagonist(s) of the film Riley herself, or the personifications of her emotions we see inside her head reacting to the world around Riley and controlling her actions.

The majority of what I have seen written about the film focuses on the origin of these personifications (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear) in the six universal emotions from the work of Paul Eckman (1971). The emotion not included, surprise or shock, could be said to have been included in Fear due to how he (re)acts in certain situations. I mention this as one emotion that was considered, but not included in the results of Eckman’s study was ‘contempt’, which is overtly included in the film as part of the role of Disgust.

Sadness is the root of our empathy and ability to deeply care about others. At one point in the film Joy and Sadness are trying to get back to ‘Headquarters’ in a hurry with the assistance of another character. After something did not go to plan this character begins to feel down and doesn’t wish to keep trying. Joy tries to ignore the problem, pressures him to keep moving and, when that doesn’t work, is prepared to leave him behind. Sadness shares her understanding of what that must have been like for the other character and, through being empathised with, he reaches a point where he is able to carry on.

A major part of the early character building is of Joy trying to minimise the impact that Sadness has on Riley’s life. However, the above marks a turning point where she begins to value the role that Sadness has. Much of the journey of the film, the “drama” if you will, is due to the denial of sadness. Once S/sadness is allowed and Riley/we can mourn what has been lost, that is when she/we can move into something new. In the film, following this, Riley is able to integrate her emotions, and this is seen in the mixing of the emotional personifications’ influences on her experiences and memories. Much like in real life, we slowly learn to experience multiple emotions at one. The catharsis of crying about something is one that I think most people can recognise.

This, I feel, is also reflective of the therapeutic relationship. Some of the best work in therapy comes not from giving people tools on how to avoid feeling sad, angry, or any host of things that can be seen as negative, but actually in bearing witness to those very things. By sitting with someone and acknowledging how very painful this experience must have been for them, they begin to permit that for themselves. Rather than push the experience away from themselves, they are able to make it part of their life and themselves. From this they are then able to move forward, rather being stuck in battle.

All in all I heartily recommend the film, both from an entertainment point of view and a professional one. Edutainment at its finest.


References:

Achor, S. (2011). The happy secret to better work. http://bit.ly/1ITyVoj

Ekman, P.; Friesen, W.V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17: 124–129. http://bit.ly/1hFS8Rl

Scarlet, J. (2015).”Inside out”: Emotional truths by way of Pixar. Beyond Heroes and Villains. Part of Psychology Today.http://bit.ly/1MrKANp