In an average life, most people have a very constricted time. Rarely is a person satisfied with as much sex, food, money and fun as he/she desires. Mostly, society (and health issues) enforce humans to lead somewhat disgruntled lives. Because the alternative, if everyone did exactly what their hearts desired and damn the consequences, would be anarchy and chaos. Plus obesity and death.

The thing inside us all, in our unconscious, that wants to be free, regardless of outcome, is what Freud named the id.

And it wants to play.

Seemingly, scriptwriters have discovered a method to let their id run free. In a script, they can allow their characters to indulge in any taboo behaviour. And with impunity to boot!

Freud said that every person in your dreams is you. And so logically, every character in a script is thus a facet of the scriptwriter. And when characters have sex, kill, and generally do whatever they want, it’s the scriptwriter’s id at work.

Often you’ll meet a scriptwriter and he/she will be bespeckled and timid. And then you’ll read their script and be astonished at what the scriptwriter has written.

You’ve probably heard these comments said about certain scripts…

“I couldn’t continue reading it after he ate his cat.”

“The fact your protagonist does that with his mother makes him unlikeable.”

“I had to look up coprophilia in the dictionary”

Unchecked by the Super Ego ( the disciplinarian part of the unconscious) the id can truly run free. And occasionally some scriptwriters fall prey to their unencumbered id ruining their script. A good example of this is Joe Eszterhas, the writer of BASIC INSTINCT. By the time Eszterhas wrote SHOWGIRLS, a famously bad film, his id had truly and uncontrollably run amok.

Jack Feldstein.

Previously:
PART 1 – THE AUTISTIC FANTASY THEORY
PART 2 – THE NARCISSISTIC THEORY
Next: PART 4 – THE EMPOWERMENT THEORY

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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by Jack Feldstein

THE NARCISSISTIC THEORY

It might be said that scriptwriters are those who fall in love with their own thoughts. And the process of recording those thoughts is scriptwriting.

This explains the intense anger often experienced by scriptwriters when their work is rejected or altered. If they love their own ideas then rejection of those ideas leads to a personal sense of feeling unloved.

And very few things make a person more furious than their love being scorned.

The very act of scriptwriting indicates that the person believes their thoughts are unique and worth noting. That belief of “specialness” is a classic narcissistic trait. After all, every human being has many thoughts. But only some believe those thoughts are extraordinary and possess great value as the basis for a film.

The very act of scriptwriting indicates that the person believes their thoughts are unique and worth noting.

When the world conspires to counter a scriptwriter’s belief system ( for instance, when a script is not chosen or changed vastly by a director or not recognized to be as special as the scriptwriter him/herself believes ) then cognitive dissonance in the scriptwriter creates great inner psychic pain.

Cognitive dissonance is defined as when the outside world is at odds with a person’s inner belief system. If that inner belief system is challenged, (“My script is special! Yet they rejected it!”)…then to soothe him/herself the scriptwriter must rationalize why the script was rejected.

Otherwise he/she faces much psychic turmoil and pain with the knowledge that maybe their thoughts aren’t special and loveable after all.

Scriptwriters often utilize phrases like these below to save themselves from great psychic pain and to protect themselves from the need to question the sense of their own “specialness”.

“ Those executives are idiots.”
“ No-one knows how to read a script.”
“Look at the crap they chose instead of mine!”

Often their narcissism leads scriptwriters to feel much Schadenfreude when another film bombs at the box office.

Often their narcissism leads scriptwriters to feel much Schadenfreude when another film bombs at the box office.

This helps scriptwriters maintain their inner narcisstic premise which says, their script, had it been selected, would have made a highly successful film.

-Jack Feldstein

Previously: PART 1 – THE AUTISTIC FANTASY THEORY
Next: PART 3 – THE ID THEORY

Jack Feldstein is an award-winning scriptwriter and neon animation filmmaker.

His rambling seemingly make-it-up-as-you-go-along, stream of consciousness monologue narratives have been likened to Woody Allen and Spalding Gray, but with an Australian twist.

Feldstein woke up one morning and began making neon films.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!