Some heвЂ™s made wives for breeding, others he chains in pumping rooms to use their breast milk for his purposes. Immortant Joe took possession of many women. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa and the wives join forces with Max and, later, the VuvaliniвЂ™s. In therapy, thereвЂ™s the help of a skilled therapist. The internal fight against such a belief system is no different than the war between Immortan Joe and Furiosa and her crew. They convince you itвЂ™s best to expect nothing.ДЄnger at the imposition of such a limited existence is the only remedy. In my work with depressed patients, trying to stand up against tyrannical voices, these voices threaten disaster. FuryвЂ™s Saving Grace in Mad MaxДЇuriosa is an apt name for the kind of anger necessary to undo a tyrantвЂ™s hold. He canвЂ™t, at first, join Furiosa and the wivesвЂ™ angry escape. Dreams of death become NuxвЂ™s ultimate triumph and a suicidal retreat takes over. When he canвЂ™t and JoeвЂ™s pregnant wife, Angharad ( Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), falls under the rig and dies, Nux collapses in despair. She escapes in a War Rig with JoeвЂ™s five beautiful вЂњwives.вЂќ Joe sends Nux to stop them. Imperator Furiosa, a Colonial in Immortan JoeвЂ™s army, is just such an impulse. Do his bidding or youвЂ™re a failure and brutally criticized, especially if you donвЂ™t stop the impulse to escape his control. This, too, is what a mental tyrant expects. Nux, one of Immortan JoeвЂ™s War Boys, dutifully carries out his orders. In NuxвЂ™s parched lips and gaunt face, we see the damaging effects of a tyrantвЂ™s control.

It will take hold of you and you will resent its absence.вЂќ In an all too similar way, the tyrannical voice in your mind might warn: вЂњDonвЂ™t trust anyone.

He floods them with needed water and immediately cuts it off: вЂњDonвЂ™t, my friends, become addicted to water. Tyrant Immortan Joe begins the film by taunting his starving, thirsty, desperate captives. A mental tyrant takes over easily in such vulnerable psychic conditions. Then thereвЂ™s Nux: depleted, parched, without the will to go on. But, in fact, helping others likely seems a safer bet than turning to someone who could be lost. Max is a good example вЂ“ a loner, with an instinct to survive by his own will and without anyoneвЂ™s help. They convince themselves they need no one. The wasteland many depressed people live in is the isolation imposed by running in fear of their grief and any new attachments. I am the one who runs from both living and dead. As Max says, in a voiceover, at the beginning of the film: вЂњThe world fell. Depression can feel like the end of the world. Max lost his wife, and son, and Furiosa, her mother, and her homeland. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Max, and Furiosa have suffered difficult losses. Or these voices of conviction continue to endlessly terrorize, advising against any risks of disappointment, hurt, or loss. They must be discovered in therapy by therapists who know about their existence. Or as the only friend, you, a depressed and lonely person has. To those under siege, mental invaders pose as knowing better than anyone else. And, they become convincing voices in the mind, blocking desire for whatвЂ™s feared the most: attachment, love, need, and change. Mental invaders develop from histories of trauma and severe deprivation. British psychoanalyst, Paul Williams, has written extensively in Invasive Objects: Minds Under Siege about such forces in the mind that hijack hope. This conviction is the work of an invader like Immortan Joe. Along with вЂњknowingвЂќ whatвЂ™s in the present is no different. Yet, in depression, the belief persists that those experiences will always be. It may be true that what was needed in childhood was scarce or unavailable.

Mental InvadersДepression can feel just as barren as the landscape in Mad Max: Fury Road. We see in the characters of Max ( Tom Hardy), Imperator Furiosa ( Charlize Theron), and Nux ( Nicholas Hoult), what it takes to fight these tyrannical forces. As a psychoanalyst who treats severe depressive states, I found this film a fascinating allegorical tale of the conditions under which mental tyrants take over, as well as the kinds of control they exert. Immortan Joe ( Hugh Keays-Byrne)В in Director George MillerвЂ™s western style post apocalyptic film, Mad Max:Fury Road, is a good example. Opportunists in the mind take over in states of emotional deprivation.

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