In many movies the main characters
have a character flaw or tendency that causes them
all sorts of problems. Frequently these
difficulties are the result of earlier bad
experiences. These experiences victimized
the characters and put them at a disadvantage later
in life when they had to deal with some situation.
Many important films including Casablanca,
The Best Years Of Our Lives, What's Love Got To Do
With It, Forrest Gump, and Nixon
deal with this issue.
The purpose of this booklet is to
educate people who have been victimized about how
earlier bad episodes have impacted their thinking and
behavior. Understanding Victimization
addresses the issue of how a person's earlier
experiences affect the way they deal with these
events. Considerable attention to paid to people who
live chronic victim roles as we see with Jenny in Forrest
Gump, Sandra in Children Of A Lessor
God, and Charlie in Shine.
The author writes:
This booklet was written to help people understand
the impact of victimizations and how people end up
acting as victims. This booklet is also about hope.
No matter who you are, no matter what has happened,
and no matter how long ago that occurred, you can
become free of the self-defeating behavior and
beliefs that are a throwback of that bad experience.
"'That's easy to say,' patients have often told
their therapists.
"Yes, it is easy to say as are so many truths.
It takes hard work to free oneself and break out of a
victim pattern. But that's not the biggest challenge.
Most of the people making this statement are not
lazy. Their biggest obstacle is a knee-jerk response
of distorted thinking and unhealthy emotional
reactions including their negativism that are the
legacy of their victimizing experiences.*
Understanding Victimization includes many examples of
"average people" in "average
situations" to illustrate its points.
TS1001 (32 pgs.)
*Copyright 1995 Claremont
Behavioral Studies Institute.
RETURN
TO THERAPEUTIC CINEMA
