Chris Port Blog #303 "Why call it 'IMCF'?"

© Chris Port, 18^th July 2011

A friend of mine has recently made some pronouncements about Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining. Despite hearing that it’s an interesting film, she’s never quite been able to get into it. She’s watched it in uninvolving episodes over several years. Having finally made it to the ending, she doesn’t like the film. She can’t quite put her finger on it, but yesterday she tentatively suggested a cause. Shelly Duvall’s character. She didn’t like it.

What’s interesting about her “I don’t get The Shining” anecdote is her stated reason (“Shelly Duvall”).

Two questions:

1) What doesn’t she like about the character?

2) Why does she focus on this character and not the husband or the child?

Here’s how a writer thinks. Well this one, anyway.

When choosing something we LIKE, we are choosing something we want to BE or HAPPEN. Our LIKES are our WISHES (either for roles or situations).

When we choose something we DISLIKE, we are choosing something we DON’T WANT to be or happen. Our DISLIKES are our FEARS.

What’s interesting when we DISLIKE something is not what we CHOOSE but what we AVOID choosing (because we tend to retreat from fear).

I like The Shining BECAUSE it scares me and tells me something interesting about myself.

I dislike Shelly Duvall’s character because I IDENTIFY WITH Jack’s character. Jack’s MALE character disintegrates into madness and/or evil. This is my fear. On the positive side, it means that I have a highly developed conscience and super ego - which is not the same as the ego at all ;)

Could my friend dislike Shelly Duvall’s character because she IDENTIFIES with her? In this case, does she see herself as a trapped protector in jeopardy? This may be her fear. On the positive side, it means that she has a highly developed sense of conscience and super ego as well!

This is just a cod version of my thesis ;)

IMCF (Immediate Meta-analytical Cognition Framework). The underlying purpose of IMCF is something precisely quite unlike a tarot reading of aesthetic responses. How to let people find out two stories about themselves - their wishes and their fears. The trick is to let the subconscious choose the story then the analysis choose the happy ending. Everything is stories (as Rupert Murdoch is truly finding out!)

None of this is as important as the real question though. “Why call it ‘IMCF’?” The succinct answer is “It’s a useful mnemonic”.