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Hi, I'm an independent author and researcher from the UK. My book The Declaration of the Self: On the Abolition of the State is due to be released on 06/28/2018. It is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the basic prime principles underpinning a stateless society (such as self-ownership, property rights and the NAP). The second part is devoted to the 'application' of these principles to the provision of 'public goods' such as 'national' defence, law, money and roads (among others). The third part contains the 'declaration' of the title, while exploring how a free society might be established. If you're interested, I can arrange a free kindle copy for review (via voucher) on the day of release (on a first come first serve basis, of course). Please let me know. Cheers. Adam Clarke *** Website: www.clarkead.co.uk Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Self-Abolition-State-ebook/dp/B07BTLS9QC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1524810104&sr=8-7&keywords=declaration+of+the+self The Declaration book cover.pdf

Our latest show! A new taste of what is to come with future PFC shows. Hope you like and please give us your opinions and thoughts on it.

Greeting all, I work for Gannett who is a large media conglomerate. So to say the least I am looking to find a new job in my field of graphic design that match mine and others views of the government and other machinations of it. I am looking to a review of my work and how I could improve it. I also would like to start a work relation with an entrepreneur for a startup. I can work with a startup to create logo stationary and other need items for that business. What advise do you have for me? Feel free to reach out here or through my e-mail at [email protected] and to find my website of work go to http://mgkieffer.us.to/. Thank you for your time and review.

[This thread is not about global warming. It is about how prudent Freedomain Radio are, when reviewing popular topics in the mass-media.] I've recently watched a documentary, recommended by Joe Rogan, about how the same people who lie for one giant harmful corporation, get hired by the other similar organisations, to publicly lie for them, as well. Sow doubt, so to speak, so that no further action is taken. I'm not much about climate science and "global warming", but I did notice that the same people who claim against the existence and human-causality of global warming (i.e. saying there's no cause for worry), are the hoaxers being employed by the Oil corporations. >< Stefan released several videos (recent video) about "global warming", sowing doubt about the whole subject. Regardless of the topic itself, which is not of personal interest to me, I am alarmed to see Stefan on the side of the worst enemies to humanity. These guys are known to falsify data and give bribes; Stefan often links to mass-media articles, which might as well quote from sources impacted by these same people (multi-billionaires.) Is it prudent of Stefan and the FDR team to release opinionated videos about such popular topics that are strongly impacted by false information? False articles, false interpretations, false witnesses, and even false research. In the documentary, a woman took over two years to figure out some of the tricks these people use, to make-popular false conclusions! Merchants of Doubt Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ii9zGFDtc

It's not finished, but I was so eager to share what I had, I felt like posting. Enjoy In the film Tangled, Disney's version of Rapunzel, the story begins by having the film's anti-hero, Flynn Rider, give the audience back-story which introduces us to our main characters. Rapunzel is a daughter of royalty. Her parents rule over an unnamed kingdom that is home to a magical golden flower that has the incredible ability to heal wounds, illnesses, and even reverse aging. However, the flower is only a legend to the King and Queen as well as to the rest of the kingdom. The only person who is certain of this flower's existence and its location is the film's antagonist, Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel is a very old woman who uses the flower to to stay forever young and beautiful. In order to continue using it, she hoards it by making sure it is hidden under an artificial bush. When the Queen is pregnant with Rapunzel, she becomes struck with a fatal illness. Desperate to keep his wife alive, the King sent his army to search for the Golden Flower to use its healing properties. The film then shows us Mother Gothel attempting to use the flower again. Before she can activate its power, she becomes startled by the sound of a squad of the Kings' soldier's footsteps moving towards her location, so she quickly rushes to conceal the flower with her fake bush and hides. Unwittingly, the accidentally knocks over the flower's cover with her foot as she hurries to get out of the approaching men's sight, leaving the glowing magical flower visible. Once the soldiers see the flower, they immediately take it back to the castle and use its magic to save the Queen. Thus, a healthy baby Rapunzel is born. Rapunzel was not merely healthy, though. Thanks to the potion's magic, Rapunzel was born with golden blond hair with the flower's ability to heal. All seemed well in the Kingdom, but Mother Gothel was not unaware of Rapunzel's whereabouts. In fact, she followed the guards and witnessed what became of the flower. Eager to keep getting her fix of age reversing magic, Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel and took her to a faraway tower where she decided to raise the baby as her own daughter. It is at this point our exposition scene ends and the actual film begins. So far, my first impressions towards the film are very positive. The animation is breathtakingly gorgeous, the humor is charming, and the pacing is just right for my taste. And while there is much to say about the technical aspects of the films, my purpose in this review is to bring attention to the more disturbing and subtle psychological themes within the film, so my main focus will be on the characters. I do want to be clear that I am not a psychologist and thus am not trained to diagnose mental illnesses. These are simply my thoughts that I will try to make a rational case for with the help of some very useful material I've read. Some of the terms I'll be using are based on highly complex concepts that have a plethora of literature written about them, which I have only been exposed to a small percentage of, so I'm in no way an expert. The first character that I want to explore is the evil Mother Gothel. I originally thought this character was a typical narcissist. Her gross obsession with youth and beauty, the multiple mirrors in her house, as well as her exploitative tendencies, all of these things seemed indicative that Gothel was a Narcissist. However, after giving the idea more thought I realized that, due to Gothel's willingness to murder, kidnap infants, and chronically lie to get what she wants, I decided that she would best be described as a sociopath, although it is clear that she exhibits classic narcissistic characteristics, such as vanity. To use the helpful distinction that clinical psychologist Martha Stout lays out in her fascinating book “the sociopath next door”, the difference between Narcissism and Sociopathy is that ”Narcissism is, in a metaphorical sense, one half of what sociopathy is. Even clinical narcissists are able to feel most emotions as strongly as anyone else does, from guilt and sadness to desperate love and passion. The half that is missing is the crucial ability to understand what other people are feeling. Narcissism is a failure not of conscience but of empathy, which is the capacity to perceive emotions in others and so react to them appropriately.” Thus, Narcissism is a lack of empathy, while sociopathy is a lack of conscience. The way that sociopathy is portrayed in most films is not entirely accurate. Most of the time the villains in cinema are exaggerated characatures of sociopaths at best. Sociopaths in reality are not so obvious or grand. They do not normally kidnap babies. They do not wear dark, hooded cloaks. They do not laugh maniacally. In fact, according to Martha Stout, “the only emotions that sociopaths seem to feel genuinely are the so-called 'primitive' affective reactions that result from immediate physical pain and pleasure, or from short-term frustrations and successes.” Dinsey villains appear to be passionate about being evil, but sociopaths cannot experience love, passion or joy. They are in fact not usually violent. How do I know this? Well, have you ever came across anybody like this in your life? Probably not,(I genuinely hope not) but statistically you have certainly came into contact with a sociopath. It is estimated that 1 in 25 Americans are sociopath. That is more than anorexia, which is considered to be an epidemic. The fact that you most likely cannot recall where or when this occurred demonstrates what I mean when I say that sociopaths are much more subtle and hidden. It is this subtle and hidden nature of sociopathy that I think Tangled portrays quite well in some instances, most notably in the interactions between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel when Rapunzel is an adult. After the film's exposition scene, we are introduced to Rapunzel, who is now a young adult. She starts off the main plot of the film with a wonderful song entitled “When Will My Life Begin.” The song communicates her weariness and frustration at living in a tower,regardless of having as much time as she wants to spend on improving her plethora of skills and talents, such as, pottery making,painting, ballet, guitar playing, and sewing. My interpretation of this scene is that mere productivity without growth is not living. So much of what we do during the day, what we call "living life" is not actually living. Each day, without striving towards a noble goal, such as individuation, living with integrity, and speaking the truth, simply becomes a photocopy of the last day. And in much of the same way a copy of a copy becomes more and more degraded, so too do our lives lose definition when do not raise our standards. So, why does Rapunzel stay inside and continue to choose the comfort of routine and repetition? Because her "mother won't allow her to leave." is her stated reason. Yet, as she soon discovered, her prison was only internal for she eventually left the tower. She could have left anytime. Perhaps that's why many of us choose the familiar. To avoid the pain of knowing that the jail cell that we thought was permanently sealed, the cell that we spent years of our lives in for the sake of appeasing empty people, was unlocked the entire time. The following sequence struck a deep emotional chord with me. It was almost as if every interaction I had been in where I ended up being on the receiving end of some type of emotional abuse was spliced together so that I no longer felt like I was watching a film based on an old fairy tale, but was rather reviewing my own memories. Because of this, it was very difficult for me to re watch these scenes. It is these exchanges between Mother Gothal and Rapunzel that motivated me to write this paper. One of the main purposes of emotional abuse is to obscure the source of the abuse. Unlike physical abuse or even some verbal abuse where the victim can clearly see what is being done to them, emotional abuse makes the victim feel like she is in a fog so that when she feels hurt she isn't able to figure out why. This keeps her in a perpetual state of confusion, which is then taken advantage of by the abuser to continue the abuse usually to convince the victim that she is imagining things, there is no abuse, and that she is misinterpreting the situation. An error of reality processing on the victims part. If the abuser is successful in convincing her that her pain is entirely self generated by her erroneous thinking, then she has been programmed to abuse herself. Nothing could be more satisfying to a sadist. It's the perfect scam. To abuse anyone in such a way as to get the victim to doubt her own ability to press reality is called gaslighting. Mother Gothel arrives at the tower and calls Rapunzel to let down her hair. Immediately, the first interaction that we see between the two is entirely destructive to Rapunzel. After Gothel is pulled up from the tower she asks Rapunzel with an obviously disingenuous tone of voice “Oh, Rapunzel. How do you manage to do that every single day without fail? It looks absolutely exhausting, darling!” Rapunzel hesitantly replies, ”Oh, it's nothing.” “Then I don't know why it takes you so long.”, Gothel tauntingly says in which is followed by a hearty laugh at her own “joke”. “Oh, darling I'm just teasing!” Rapunzel says nothing with a confused look on her face. Gothel walks towards her mirror to inspect her reflection. Rapunzel follows and tries to express what's been on her mind. “All right...so, mother. As you know tomorrow is a very big day” Gothel interrupts showing no sign that she's listened.“Rapunzel look in that mirror. You know what I see? There's a short pause and during this moment you an see by her uneasy facial expression on that Rapunzel is anticipating another attack. “I see a strong confident beautiful young lady.“ Rapunzel is relieved that no put down was made. She lets her guard and even allows herself to smile. Then the trap is sprung. “Oh, look! You're here too!” Gothel one again ejects an intensely derisive laugh like cannon fire. Rapunzel's distress becomes more apparent by the expression on her face. Gothel continues the abuse, “I'm just teasing, stop taking everything so seriously.” . So, here we have in manipulation put forth as compassion and concern, put downs and insults disguised as humor, invalidation of the the person's feelings, which then finished off by gas lighting. And the order in which these things occur is no accident. There is certainly a kind of brilliance in the way that these abusive strategies are executed. Abusers want two things; to hurt you and for you to stick around so they can keep hurting you. For example, a good action film doesn't start with the most intense sequence nor does it keep the action non stop. If it did, the audience would lose interest or find the excess of stimuli unbearable. Then they would leave the theater Instead, a good action film builds the tension gradually. Once the tension of an action scene reaches its pinnacle, it is then released by allowing the next sequence to be more focused on dialogue and character development in a relaxed environment. This allows the audience to relax before the next action scene wherein the tension becomes even greater. Similarly, a good abuser, such as Gothel, always leaves room for “down time”, where she compliments Rapunzel or asks a question out of “concern”. This allows Rapunzel to relax and thus let her guard down, which only makes the next blow's impact is that much greater. As Vin Deisal says in the film Riddick “It's always the punch you don't see that puts you down.” It is not hair, but Rapunzel herself that is tangled, tangled in Gothel's web emotional vampirism and abuse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIs9sFyFSDk http://www.daughtersofnarcissisticmothers.com/characteristics-of-narcissistic-mothers.html Perhaps the most tragic thing about being tortured in this way for many years is that the abuser becomes internalized. Internalization is the process by which the attitudes, values, standards and opinions of others is integrated into one's own sense of identity. It happens automatically and cannot be undone. The result is that even after Rapunzel escapes her prison and her torturer, Gothel is still in her head. Remember how I said that gaslighting, getting the victim to doubt her ability to process reality, leads the victim to attack herself? Again, this is something the film portrays surprisingly well, which is not only the abuse, but its effects. After Rapunzel is free she constantly doubts her decision and castigates herself, proclaiming that, "she is a bad daughter", "breaking her mother's heart", and a "horrible person". And for anyone who has gone through the rough process of breaking out of abusive relationships, it is not uncommon for this doubt and self flagulation to occur. Even when the person has treated you egregiously your entire life, this process can take years.

A few months ago, I did my first ever movie analysis on the movie "Frozen." https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/39347-analysis-of-movie-frozen/ Well, I have decided to try it again with the movie "Brave." Please let me know what you think. I hope this review isn't too long, but I wanted to go over this movie in detail. This review is pretty critical of the movie so if you liked it be warned. *** Spoiler alert *** I am going to be going through the whole plot in detail so don't read if you want to watch the movie. Brave is a movie that shows the transformation of Merida to a false self due to her lying to herself about her mother. The realization that made this movie click for me is to realize that Mordue is actually Elinor, Merida's mother. Before going into the plot, I wanted to present some of the evidence that Mordue is actually Merida's mom. Every time we see Mordue, it is when Merida is with her mom. Also, in each case, right before Mordue appears, Merida sees the will of the wisps. This is a marker of when Merida is entering fantasy and lying to herself about what is actually occuring. Elinor becomes a bear and twice almost attacks Merida. Also, as a clue, at one point the father thinks that Elinor (as a bear) is Mordue. So on to the plot... At the very beginning, Merida and her mother are playing hide and seek. They are having a bonding moment and Merida gets a bow and shoots an arrow into the woods. She wanders off searching for her arrow. She is led by the will of the wisps back to protect her from Mordue who is implied to be watching her. I think what actually happens is that she gets lost in the woods and when she returns, she meets the rage of her mom. Remember that every time she is seeing the will of the wisps, she is entering fantasy and creating a different narrative for what events are actually occuring. So Mordue attacks and she remembers it as her mom running her to protection and her father facing Mordue. One thing that is interesting is that at other times in the movie, Merida goes to her father for protection from her mom. Each time this happens, the father fails to protect her. The father has lost his leg from Mordue and to me this represents that he has lost a part of himself especially his self-respect due to being submissive to Elinor. Multiple times throughout the movie, Elinor humiliates her husband and he just submits. So after the Mordue beginning scene, Merida talks about fate and talks about how many believe that fate can't be changed. She implies that fate can be changed and ends with "there are some who are led." This is interesting because this is completely contradictory. A person who is led is not changing their fate, but is arguably actually following their fate. In other words, she is lying to herself that she actually changed her fate. This becomes clear by the end of the movie. So Merida starts talking about how her whole life is controlled by her mother. Her true self is rightly angered by this and seeks freedom. On special days, she gets to be herself and she rides shooting arrows and drinks of the fire falls. She comes home and the father is telling the story of his leg, while the mother is completely ignoring him. Merida tells him that she drank of the fire falls, and the father is impressed and says "they say that only the ancient kings were brave enough to drink the fire." I think this means that only in ancient times were people brave enough to be their true selves. Elinor gets the news of the betrothal. Fergus tries to tell Merida and the mother gets impatient and takes over humiliating Fergus. Merida gets upset and seeks her father's help but he doesn't give it to her. Merida is justly angry because her mother is about to force her to get married which is really just institutional rape. The mother is completely out of touch with her own pain she experienced as a child and is normalizing it by inflicting it on Merida. She acts bewildered on why Merida isn't happy with the news which shows how much she has repressed her own childhood memories and how much she is ignoring Merida. She comes to Merida's room and tells her of an ancient kingdom. This story is actually the story of her own history. The story of Brave is the cycle of the false self is repeated onto the next generation. Elinor's story is a legend because the mom can't remember what actually happened for real. What is particularly outrageous is that she equates the prince trying to take over the other brother's kingdoms as "following his own path." She is using an example of going to war to conquer and his fault was following his own path. She has clearly failed to understand the morality of her own history and is now going to inflict the same injustice on her daughter. The mother talks to the father about her frustration. She roleplays and says they are giving her all the things they never had, asks "What do you expect us to do", "Are you willing to pay the price for your freedom", and "We can't run away from who we are." These are clearly the same things that she was told as a child and she now believes them even though they are obviously not true. She is asking her daughter to listen, but she isn't listening to the daughter. What is interesting is that the daughter has in fact listened to her. The daughter does know her arguments and has countered them. So the daughter was listening, and the mother wasn't. There is a false idea that floats around a lot in family movies that the only real problem with family relationships is listening. The reality is that those who are oppressed have to listen and be hyper-attentive to those in power for self-protection. Those who oppress are choosing not to listen because they want to lie to themselves on what is actually occuring. Listening won't solve anything because it is a symptom, not the root cause. Now the day comes where the clans arrive and Merida is wearing a tight outfit which is representative of the tight control she is being submitted to in order to be someone her mom wants her to be. The mom has a moment of connection with the daughter where she is about to have empathy because it is reminding her of her own past. The mom can't handle it and reverts back to her false self and tells Merida to smile. The clans arrive and the clans really represent extended family. The father is trying to address the clans and struggles and the mom humiliates Fergus by taking over again. The clans are all about false image and pretending their sons are better than they really are. The clans get into a fight and it is clear that the clans have pretty violent relationships. The mother ends the fighting because she in fact has the real power and is in charge. They have the archery contest and Merida rips her dress to fire the arrows and this represents she is refusing to conform to her mom's tight restrictions. She defeats the suitors arrows and is met with rage by her mom. The mom doesn't care about her daughter as much as she cares about her own embarrassment ("YOU EMBARRASED THEM AND YOU EMBARRASED ME!"). She demands that Merida listen to her. Merida protests and says that "you were never there for me." This line is important because it comes up later several times. In her true self anger, Merida sees that her mom doesn't care about her. Merida rips the tapestry with her sword. The mom cares more about the tapestry then about what she is about to do to her daughter. The mom then burns her bow and realizes in a moment of anguish the corruption of her false self. Note that she doesn't use this moment to change because when Merida gets back, she still wants to appease the clans. Merida runs away. She reaches the circle of stones and falls off her horse. The stones represent the cycle of abuse from generation to generation. First, the stones are in a circle and are ancient which means ancient cycle. They have a strong connection to "fate" in the story. The stones also have an ominous feel to them. Almost every time the stones enter the story, there is something violent that has happened or is about to happen. The first time they are encountered is when Merida fell off her horse. She sees the will of the wisps and follows them representing again going into fantasy. This time, she is creating a fantasy that she can change her mom. She meets the witch and she is a wood carver of bears. I think the choice of bears is interesting for the film. Bears have two natures to them. On the one hand, bears are nice, cuddly, and fuzzy (think teddy bears). On the other hand, they are strong predators that can be very violent and dangerous. This represents the splitting that is about to happen in Merida's mind about her mom's nature. This dual nature also applies to the witch herself. She is a wood-carver but also with a snap of her fingers, her home changes and has a brewing cauldron. She acts nice at first, but then becomes very threatening with the floating knives, then changes again to being nice when offered Merida's medallion. She also acts nice but is very violent with her crow. I am not entirely sure what she represents, but it has something to do with the dual nature. Even the cake is dual natured and pretends to be a cake when it really isn't. When Merida gets the cake and turns around, the witch's cottage is not there which further confirms that this was all fantasy. Merida returns and the mom acts concerned about her being lost, and acts as if nothing had happened before. She is concerned that Merida might of got hurt, but is oblivious to the tremendous harm she is about to put her daughter through to appease the Clans. The mother is completely suppressing the moment of realization she had before and needs to pretend that nothing is wrong to avoid her realization. Merida gives her the cake and she eats it and turns into a bear. They have to escape the castle. Notice that only the boys and Merida see the bear. Fergus smells the bear, but no one believes him. Corrupt people are very good at putting a front to hide their nature from others. They get to the stones and Merida can't see the wisps. Now what happens next doesn't make sense in terms of the story plot but does in terms of the meaning behind the film. The mother starts to walk and she in fact knows the way to the witch's cottage. This tells us that she has been here before. The story of the ancient kingdom is in fact her story and she knows about the fantasy of the cottage. They get to the cottage, and no one is there, but a message was left. "Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond, torn by pride." This is the illusion of the false self. To change your fate, you must look inside yourself and create a fantasy so that you can mend the bond with corrupt people by believing it is your fault (your pride). Next Merida throws in all the bottles and the witch's cottage is destroyed. The cottage being empty when there are no wisps and it later being destroyed are clues that this is fantasy. When the mom is despairing, she has a flashback where Merida was scared by lightning, and Elinor remembers promising that "I will always be there for you." This promise she obviously has not kept and it is in her moment of despair that the true self is showing the truth to her. The next morning, the mom is trying to make breakfast and later the mom and Merida have a bonding moment catching fish. Interestingly, the mom leaves her crown. The mom stops being her false self for a while and that is why she is able to bond with Merida. However, the mom can't handle being her true self and becomes a wild bear (begins to become like Mordue). Right as this is happening, Merida again goes into fantasy because another will of the wisp appears. They travel to the ancient kingdom. Notice that Elinor leaves her crown. This I believe can have two possible meanings. The first meaning is from the crown representing her status as Queen. The mom has to leave the crown in order to bond with Merida and stop being a bear. However, I think another meaning that I agree more with is is forshadowing. The crown is not just a symbol of her being Queen but also a symbol of her marriage with Fergus. She has left the crown and this is forshadowing that becomes more clear later in the story. So Elinor and Merida travel to the ancient kingdom (remember that this is all fantasy that is created right as Elinor is about to attack Merida as a bear). They travel to the kingdom and there is a wasteland that has lots of pillars that look very similar to the circle of stones. This ancient kingdom is the destruction of Elinor's childhood. Merida comes across "the strength of ten men and fate be changed." The false self is created because it convinces the person that it can have much more strength to fight corruption, this is the meaning of strength of ten. Also the false self lies and says that it can control destiny (fate be changed). Mordue attacks Merida and again while in fantasy, Merida believes the mom as the good bear is protecting her from Mordue. They escape and reach the circle of stones. They return to the castle and the clans are fighting. Merida acts just like her mother and gets the clans to stop fighting. She then tells them she was selfish (remember, she is selfish for not willing to sacrifice herself to the clans). She tells them of the ancient kingdom and unites the clans. At this point she is becoming dominated by her false self and making herself a sacrifice for others. The mom is now happy she has become like her and now lets her decide who she gets to marry and tell the clans this through sign language of sorts. I think basically this means that when a child becomes the false self, it is a form of protection from parental harm. A parent is less dominating and when a child has become the false self, they loosen their dominating force. This is why a child becomes the false self to avoid harm. So Merida and Elinor go up to the tapestry and again Elinor becomes wild. Fergus believes that Mordue has killed Elinor and attacks Elinor. Elinor easily knocks out Fergus. Notice that Fergus is never really a match for Mordue or for his wife Elinor and not just when Elinor is a bear. Elinor runs away and is chased by the clans. Fergus locks up Merida and Merida believes it is her fault that Fergus is after Elinor. This part of the story confused me for a while until I realized that at this point, Elinor has revealed herself to be a bear to Fergus and to the clans. What I believe is actually going on is that Fergus and Elinor are going through a divorce. The father and the clans are going after Elinor because she is Mordue. I think it is very likely that whoever was mainly in charge of the story has gone either through a divorce themself or seen their parents divorce as a child. I think this is possible the meaning of the forshadowing of the Queen losing her crown. Notice that Fergus says to Merida, " I am not willing to risk losing you too." Also, Elinor did actually hurt Merida. Merida is unable to see that it is not her fault what is going on and believes that Fergus is divorcing Merida because of her. This metaphor emotionally captures the feelings of a child watching their parents divorce. The boys help Merida escape and she rides to the stones with the guidance of the will of the wisps. Again, she is going into fantasy. She is sewing the tapestry which she believes will fix everything. Elinor is trapped at the circle of stones, and Merida believes that she rescues her mother. Then Mordue appears. When Mordue appears, the clans and Fergus are no match. Mordue almost kills Merida and Elinor breaks free and fights Mordue. I think this actually has two meanings. First, Merida is believing that her mom is fighting Mordue and protecting her which is a repeated fantasy. Also, I couldn't help getting the feeling watching the two bears fighting thta this is what it is like for children to witness their parents fighting. Everyone is cowering in fear watching two goliaths in combat. Merida believes that her mom kills Mordue and this is done by breaking the circle of stones or breaking the cycle of violence. The prince appears as a will of the wisp again showing that this is fantasy. Merida throws the tapestry over her mom and everyone is sad that the mom is still a bear. Notice that the boys are bears too which is showing that the cycle will continue with them as well. I think what is really happening is that everyone is crying over watching the marriage dissolving. At the end, Merida says that it is all her fault, and "you were always there for me." This is a child who is so desparate to believe that she can fix her mom and fix everthing by taking responsibility for her mom's corruption. Elinor changes back and everything is a happy ending, however, as the mom and Merida are riding on their horses, you see another will of the wisp signifying that this is a fantasy. At the end she says again says that there are those who say fate can't be changed, but she knows better, that to change fate you just need to be "brave enough to see it." Basically, she believes her fate has changed because she is willing to believe a delusion.

I recently watched the movie frozen, and struck me emotionally. I felt there was something deeper going on, and I thought about it and I think I have a good idea of one possible interpretation of the movie.*** SPOILER ALERT ***I will be going through the plot in detail and so don't read this review until after you have watched the movie.The main cue to deeper meaning is the ice. The ice stands for the truth and integrity. Ice is a manifestation of the true self. The entire movie is about the struggle of the true self against the false self. To start with, the main thing that made the deeper meaning click for me is to realize that Anna and Elsa are in fact the same person. Elsa is the true self. I was very confused at first because I thought that Anna was the false self, but it didn't make sense with the rest of the movie. I then realized that Anna is the manifestation of the personality. When they are children, Elsa and Anna are in harmony as children are with their true self.However, Anna gets struck with ice to the head and this creates a panic. I think this implicitly means that Anna is attacked for being her true self as a child. She is rushed to the troll healer. The troll healer I think means well, but he is actually corrupt. His advice is to erase Elsa's memories which is basically telling Anna to self-erase her true self. He also warns her about fear, but all his advice is terrible because it greatly escalates fear in Elsa. Elsa must suppress her ice and cut herself off from Anna. Elsa is also cut off from the rest of the world. Notice that the troll healer can't heal the heart. This makes sense because corrupt parents can't heal the hearts of their children. Elsa's ability is considered a curse and she is told to control it by not feeling.Later on, it is pretty apparent that Anna is now completely isolated from Elsa. She is very lonely as people are when they suppress their true self. Elsa is completely isolated in her room which tells me that the true self is completely suppressed. Elsa can't really control her power because the true self can't really stop existing and conform to corrupt people. The true self can never fully self-erase and so the depression is manifested in Anna and Elsa.When coronation day arrives, Anna is now completely the false self. She is very care-free and instantly falls in love with the very corrupt Prince Hans. This is one of the ways we know that Anna is the false self. She is completely blind to the corruptness of people around her. I thought it was very fitting that Elsa has to suppress herself the very most in order to become Queen. At the dance later, Elsa is very quiet and refuses to dance. She knows that if she revealed her ice, the people there would be afraid of her. Anna on the other hand dances with the Duke and Prince Hans who are both very corrupt. She decides to get engaged to Hans, but Elsa refuses. This also tells me that Elsa is the true self because she is able to recognize the danger of marrying Hans. Anna is angry and wants to know why Elsa cuts her out. The false self wants to know why it can't be happy and is angry at the true self. Elsa loses control and reveals her power and this incites anger in the Duke and fear in the crowd. To me the Duke represents corrupt authority that seeks to exploit. The crowd represents people who obey authority and being your true self creates fear in them. Elsa runs away. Her running away creates a winter. Basically revealing your true self creates fear, panic, and anger (Duke) to those around you. Anna must leave after Elsa in order to try to restore things the way they were. Anna is still the false self and is trying to stop the waves of cold that are inevitably released when Elsa's powers are revealed. Elsa sings the "Let it go" song which is quite powerful. This is how we know for certain that Elsa is the true self and the ice is truth and integrity. This song moved me a lot and I think it moves a lot of people because it reaches down through their unconscious and their true selves crave the freedom. In the song she is expressing how she won't hold it back and she doesn't care about what others think and that the cold doesn't bother her.Anna is seeking after her sister to restore things to teh way they were before. She can't handle the cold very well and wishes her sister had powers that were powers of summer instead of ice. She comes across Christoff. He enters covered in snow and his job is hauling ice. These cues of ice let us know that Christoff is actually a very good person. Anna recognizes that only with his help can she go and find Elsa which is rather telling. It often takes a very good person and friend to help us on our path back to our true self. Anna is still the false self and she is easily offended by Christoff. Christoff is also able to see the danger in Anna's engagement and tries to warn her but she is defensive. At this moment, they are attacked by wolves, or more accurately, Christoff is attacked by wolves. The wolves represent Anna's false self emotionally attacking Christoff when he tries to tell her the truth about the corruption of Hans.Christoff still follows her even though he was just attacked by wolves which was really her attack. This tells us that he still does care about her, but he is feeling reluctant to help her when she doesn't seem to want his help and will attack him when he does. But he grudgingly recognizes that she really does need him. She is completely unaware of how lost she is and needs Christoff to even know which way to go. They then meet Olaf the snowman who becomes their guide. Olaf is the innocent child that was abandoned/destroyed when the original accident happened. We know this because he was destroyed in their childhood and is only restored when Elsa becomes free. He is also completely unaware of the danger of heat like a child is unaware of the danger of corrupt people. The fact that he becomes the guide tells us that Anna must visit her childhood memories in order to meet Elsa again. She wants to climb the wall and really can't. Olaf shows her how to find the staircase. Olaf is also very confused on why Anna can't just knock and talk to Elsa.Anna meets Elsa, and that they must meet alone with only Olaf is the clue that they were actually the same person. Anna is trying to convince Elsa to bring back summer, but Elsa can't. Anna is unaware of how Elsa is feeling and is trying to convince her to come back. She is unaware that once the true self is let free, she can't go back to the way things were before. Anna is struck with ice in the heart. To me this means that full exposure to teh true self is fatal to the false self. Elsa refuses to allow Anna to corrupt her into going back and sends the huge snow creature to drive them out. Anna is starting to become cold and Christoff takes her to see his family. Now as they are going to visit the troll family, notice the heat vents and the complete removal of all snow and ice. This is a cue that the family is actually a corrupt manipulative influence. This is verified by them wanting to manipulate Christoff and Anna to get married on the spot. This is the very danger that Christoff warned Anna about earlier. Anna is still the false self at this point and in love with Prince Hans. They are very shallow and judge her to be a good match looking at only her looks. They are basically trying to setup Christoff with a person that is still dominated by the false self. He is constantly trying to ward off their manipulation, but not being very successful. They quit trying when the coldness of Anna manifests which is interesting. The troll healer comes and says he can't do anything to help her heart. They then send Anna and Christoff to Prince Hans which is sending them in the completely wrong direction. Meanwhile, the corrupt Duke and Hans come to attack Elsa and bring back summer. The Duke through hostility, and Hans through manipulation. The ice monster tries to protect Elsa but fails. She is imprisoned again, but she can't bring back summer which is saying she can't go back to the way she was before. Anna is getting colder. The ice in her heart reveals to her the true nature of Hans. Hans only loved her false self that he could manipulate. Hans was just using her before to get to the throne of Elsa's. The ice in Anna's heart is beginning to reveal to her the corruption around her that she couldn't see. She realizes she doesn't know what love is and how shallow the false self really is. Olaf who is the childhood guide begins to teach her. Elsa uses ice to escape her captors and a storm begins. I take the storm to mean the emotional turbalence Elsa and Anna are going through. The path from the false self to the true self is very painful and turbulent. The storm is also a great sifter that reveals the real nature of the world around her. Only Christoff is willing to go through the storm and try to save Anna. Anna is wandering to find Christoff because she has learned that he is the one that actually cares about her. As Anna is becoming more aware of the truth she is getting colder and colder. The ice in her heart is killing her false self. Anna then is willing to die or let her false self completely die in order to save Elsa from the corruption of Hans. When she does, Han's sword is destroyed and Anna is fully ice. Once Anna becomes fully ice, she then melts because she now loves Elsa who is her true self. I take the love will thaw as the ending of the storm of turbulence that comes from emerging with Anna loving Elsa and they are in harmony again. Elsa has found the oasis where she can be happy and no longer has feel fear because she has removed the corrupt people out of her life. She cuts off relations with the Duke of Weselton and sends back Hans. She is surrounded by people that enjoy her ice and she now can create a perpetual winter in her castle. Olaf is now permanently protected from melting. She is leaving the door open which means she will not hide herself any longer.I like how it ends with a shot of the castle being in winter in isolation. She has created an oasis where the people that value her for who she is can gather away from summer which is the rest of the world outside.

It's not finished, but I was so eager to share what I had, I felt like posting. Enjoy In the film Tangled, Disney's version of Rapunzel, the story begins by having the film's anti-hero, Flynn Rider, give the audience back-story which introduces us to our main characters. Rapunzel is a daughter of royalty. Her parents rule over an unnamed kingdom that is home to a magical golden flower that has the incredible ability to heal wounds, illnesses, and even reverse aging. However, the flower is only a legend to the King and Queen as well as to the rest of the kingdom. The only person who is certain of this flower's existence and its location is the film's antagonist, Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel is a very old woman who uses the flower to to stay forever young and beautiful. In order to continue using it, she hoards it by making sure it is hidden under an artificial bush. When the Queen is pregnant with Rapunzel, she becomes struck with a fatal illness. Desperate to keep his wife alive, the King sent his army to search for the Golden Flower to use its healing properties. The film then shows us Mother Gothel attempting to use the flower again. Before she can activate its power, she becomes startled by the sound of a squad of the Kings' soldier's footsteps moving towards her location, so she quickly rushes to conceal the flower with her fake bush and hides. Unwittingly, the accidentally knocks over the flower's cover with her foot as she hurries to get out of the approaching men's sight, leaving the glowing magical flower visible. Once the soldiers see the flower, they immediately take it back to the castle and use its magic to save the Queen. Thus, a healthy baby Rapunzel is born. Rapunzel was not merely healthy, though. Thanks to the potion's magic, Rapunzel was born with golden blond hair with the flower's ability to heal. All seemed well in the Kingdom, but Mother Gothel was not unaware of Rapunzel's whereabouts. In fact, she followed the guards and witnessed what became of the flower. Eager to keep getting her fix of age reversing magic, Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel and took her to a faraway tower where she decided to raise the baby as her own daughter. It is at this point our exposition scene ends and the actual film begins. So far, my first impressions towards the film are very positive. The animation is breathtakingly gorgeous, the humor is charming, and the pacing is just right for my taste. And while there is much to say about the technical aspects of the films, my purpose in this review is to bring attention to the more disturbing and subtle psychological themes within the film, so my main focus will be on the characters. I do want to be clear that I am not a psychologist and thus am not trained to diagnose mental illnesses. These are simply my thoughts that I will try to make a rational case for with the help of some very useful material I've read. Some of the terms I'll be using are based on highly complex concepts that have a plethora of literature written about them, which I have only been exposed to a small percentage of, so I'm in no way an expert. The first character that I want to explore is the evil Mother Gothel. I originally thought this character was a typical narcissist. Her gross obsession with youth and beauty, the multiple mirrors in her house, as well as her exploitative tendencies, all of these things seemed indicative that Gothel was a Narcissist. However, after giving the idea more thought I realized that, due to Gothel's willingness to murder, kidnap infants, and chronically lie to get what she wants, I decided that she would best be described as a sociopath, although it is clear that she exhibits classic narcissistic characteristics, such as vanity. To use the helpful distinction that clinical psychologist Martha Stout lays out in her fascinating book “the sociopath next door”, the difference between Narcissism and Sociopathy is that ”Narcissism is, in a metaphorical sense, one half of what sociopathy is. Even clinical narcissists are able to feel most emotions as strongly as anyone else does, from guilt and sadness to desperate love and passion. The half that is missing is the crucial ability to understand what other people are feeling. Narcissism is a failure not of conscience but of empathy, which is the capacity to perceive emotions in others and so react to them appropriately.” Thus, simply put, Narcissism is a lack of empathy, while sociopathy is a lack of conscience. The way that sociopathy is portrayed in most films is not entirely accurate. Most of the time the villains in cinema are exaggerated characatures of sociopaths at best. Sociopaths in reality are not so obvious or grand. They do not normally kidnap babies. They do not wear dark, hooded cloaks. They do not laugh maniacally. In fact, according to Martha Stout, “the only emotions that sociopaths seem to feel genuinely are the so-called 'primitive' affective reactions that result from immediate physical pain and pleasure, or from short-term frustrations and successes.” Dinsey villains appear to be passionate about being evil, but sociopaths cannot experience love, passion or joy. They are in fact not usually violent. How do I know this? Well, have you ever came across anybody like this in your life? Probably not,(I genuinely hope not) but statistically you have certainly came into contact with a sociopath. It is estimated that 1 in 25 Americans are sociopath. That is more than anorexia, which is considered to be an epidemic. The fact that you most likely cannot recall where or when this occurred demonstrates what I mean when I say that sociopaths are much more subtle and hidden. It is this subtle and hidden nature of sociopathy that I think Tangled portrays quite well in some instances, most notably in the interactions between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel when Rapunzel is an adult. (For more on the dispassionate nature of the Sociopath, please check out my article "Sociopathy is nothing to Envy" http://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/39611-vengeance-and-out-sun-bathing-the-lizard-sociopathy-is-nothing-to-envy/ ) After the film's exposition scene, we are introduced to Rapunzel, who is now a young adult. She starts off the main plot of the film with a wonderful song entitled “When Will My Life Begin.” The song communicates her weariness and frustration at living in a tower,regardless of having as much time as she wants to spend on improving her plethora of skills and talents, such as, pottery making,painting, ballet, guitar playing, and sewing. My interpretation of this scene is that mere productivity without growth is not living. So much of what we do during the day, what we call "living life" is not actually living. Each day, without striving towards a noble goal, such as individuation, living with integrity, and speaking the truth, simply becomes a photocopy of the last day. And in much of the same way a copy of a copy becomes more and more degraded, so too do our lives lose definition when do not raise our standards. So, why does Rapunzel stay inside and continue to choose the comfort of routine and repetition? Because her "mother won't allow her to leave." is her stated reason. Yet, as she soon discovered, her prison was only internal for she eventually left the tower. She could have left anytime. Perhaps that's why many of us choose the familiar. To avoid the pain of knowing that the jail cell that we thought was permanently sealed, the cell that we spent years of our lives in for the sake of appeasing empty people, was unlocked the entire time. The following sequence struck a deep emotional chord with me. It was almost as if every interaction I had been in where I ended up being on the receiving end of some type of emotional abuse was spliced together so that I no longer felt like I was watching a film based on an old fairy tale, but was rather reviewing my own memories. Because of this, it was very difficult for me to re watch these scenes. It is these exchanges between Mother Gothal and Rapunzel that motivated me to write this paper. One of the main purposes of emotional abuse is to obscure the source of the abuse. Unlike physical abuse or even some verbal abuse where the victim can clearly see what is being done to them, emotional abuse makes the victim feel like she is in a fog so that when she feels hurt she isn't able to figure out why. This keeps her in a perpetual state of confusion, which is then taken advantage of by the abuser to continue the abuse usually to convince the victim that she is imagining things, there is no abuse, and that she is misinterpreting the situation. An error of reality processing on the victims part. If the abuser is successful in convincing her that her pain is entirely self generated by her erroneous thinking, then she has been programmed to abuse herself. Nothing could be more satisfying to a sadist. It's the perfect scam. To abuse anyone in such a way as to get the victim to doubt her own ability to press reality is called gaslighting. Mother Gothel arrives at the tower and calls Rapunzel to let down her hair. Immediately, the first interaction that we see between the two is entirely destructive to Rapunzel. After Gothel is pulled up from the tower she asks Rapunzel with an obviously disingenuous tone of voice “Oh, Rapunzel. How do you manage to do that every single day without fail? It looks absolutely exhausting, darling!” Rapunzel hesitantly replies, ”Oh, it's nothing.” “Then I don't know why it takes you so long.”, Gothel tauntingly says in which is followed by a hearty laugh at her own “joke”. “Oh, darling I'm just teasing!” Rapunzel says nothing with a confused look on her face. Gothel walks towards her mirror to inspect her reflection. Rapunzel follows and tries to express what's been on her mind. “All right...so, mother. As you know tomorrow is a very big day” Gothel interrupts showing no sign that she's listened.“Rapunzel look in that mirror. You know what I see? There's a short pause and during this moment you an see by her uneasy facial expression on that Rapunzel is anticipating another attack. “I see a strong confident beautiful young lady.“ Rapunzel is relieved that no put down was made. She lets her guard and even allows herself to smile. Then the trap is sprung. “Oh, look! You're here too!” Gothel one again ejects an intensely derisive laugh like cannon fire. Rapunzel's distress becomes more apparent by the expression on her face. Gothel continues the abuse, “I'm just teasing, stop taking everything so seriously.” . So, here we have in manipulation put forth as compassion and concern, put downs and insults disguised as humor, invalidation of the the person's feelings, which then finished off by gas lighting. And the order in which these things occur is no accident. There is certainly a kind of brilliance in the way that these abusive strategies are executed. For example, a good action film doesn't start with the most intense sequence nor does it keep the action non stop. If it did, the audience would lose interest or find the excess of stimuli unbearable. Instead, a good action film builds the tension gradually. Once the tension of an action scene reaches its pinnacle, it is then released by allowing the next sequence to be more focused on dialogue and character development in a relaxed environment. This allows the audience to relax before the next action scene wherein the tension becomes even greater. Similarly, a good abuser, such as Gothel, always leaves room for “down time”, where she compliments Rapunzel or asks a question out of “concern”. This allows Rapunzel to relax and thus let her guard down, which only makes the next blow's impact is that much greater. As Vin Deisal says in the film Riddick “It's always the punch you don't see that puts you down.” It is not hair, but Rapunzel herself that is tangled, tangled in Gothel's web emotional vampirism and abuse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIs9sFyFSDk http://www.daughtersofnarcissisticmothers.com/characteristics-of-narcissistic-mothers.html Perhaps the most tragic thing about being tortured in this way for many years is that the abuser becomes internalized. Internalization is the process by which the attitudes, values, standards and opinions of others is integrated into one's own sense of identity. It happens automatically and cannot be undone. The result is that even after Rapunzel escapes her prison and her torturer, Gothel is still in her head. Remember how I said that gaslighting, getting the victim to doubt her ability to process reality, leads the victim to attack herself? Again, this is something the film portrays surprisingly well, which is not only the abuse, but its effects. After Rapunzel is free she constantly doubts her decision and castigates herself, proclaiming that, "she is a bad daughter", "breaking her mother's heart", and a "horrible person". And for anyone who has gone through the rough process of breaking out of abusive relationships, it is not uncommon for this doubt and self flagulation to occur. Even when the person has treated you egregiously your entire life, this process can take years.

Prepper Press kindly sent me a free copy of "Indivisble: With Justice for Some" by Troy Grice and ask me to review it. My results can be found here.