Long time reader, first time commenter.

Rad post. I'm wondering if you realize how rad it is?

Psychoanalysis contains some of greatest stories ever told. "Beyond the Pleasure Principal" blows my mind not because of what Freud says about self-destruction, but the way he says it, how he structures it around this high-concept idea of the "death drive." Props to psychology, but like all of theory, literature and film, it's most intoxicating when it becomes the fullest expression of a single, and radical premise; The Unconscious, The Primal Scene, The Big Other, Destrudo, The Mirror Stage, etc.....all awesome hooks, fully plotted, and deeply structured.

I completely agree that a person's background in psychology "doesn't matter" and that we are "...born with an innate mental capacity to learn how to interpret the Other." This should be emphasized, maybe even pimped. What I'm really tired of are scripts written by armchair shrinks, borrowing pop psychology with zero appreciation for its narrative context......

Maybe I'm mis-reading you, but what I'm hearing from your post is this: "fuck structure, fuck psychology, they're the same thing. Focus on creating new ways of seeing the world, the characters who inhabit it, and ultimately yourself. Peace, I'm out."

No?

Nick said, "Maybe I'm mis-reading you, but what I'm hearing from your post is this: "fuck structure, fuck psychology, they're the same thing. Focus on creating new ways of seeing the world, the characters who inhabit it, and ultimately yourself. Peace, I'm out."

That's about it, Nick -- and even more.

Comment. Often. Please.

Peace -- you're in!

I've learned more about myself as a screenwriter, sure. Especially when it comes to the bad guys. No, I know what you (probably) think when you read this, but I don’t consider myself a bad guy. But to create the bad guy – or bad behavior in general – I need to realize why I act in a certain way and why I consider myself the good guy, behaving like that. That kind of thinking helps a lot when trying to get someone to do and think the opposite.

You see, most people believe that they do the right thing, but act and think quite differently, so a bad guy is not likely walking around thinking he/she is doing wrong.

I find those most interesting aspect of this article is the one glanced upon at the end --

the idea that regardless of what we are writing about, at the end of the day, subtextually, we are writing about ourselves... an exploration into the mind of the writer...

So much goes into a script's subtext that the director gets credit for, when in reality its the voice of the writer as HIM/HERSELF that speaks through the director.

A whole thesis could be written on how screenwriting (or any narrative writing for that matter) is actually a writer examining his/her thoughts, i.e. their SELF, on a page.