An exploration of the movie The Lives of Others (F. H. von Donnersmarck, 2006)

Individuation is the process of becoming whole, of being the person we are meant to be. It is a process rather than a final product, a journey of self-discovery rather than a final destination, and it always involves transformation. There is no Individuation without relatedness, whether it is to others or to oneself. Among the qualities essential for the Process of Individuation are love, an opening of oneself to others and to the world in general, the courage to face fear with honesty and take risks, a generosity of the heart and the presence of Eros. These are the qualities which allow one to travel from pain to healing, from being a stranger to oneself to finding truly who we are.

I invite you to join me in a discussion of The Lives of Others.

He sits like a man taking a hearing test, big headphones clamped over his ears, his body and face frozen, listening for a faraway sound. His name is Gerd Wiesler, and he is a captain in the Stasi, the notorious secret police of East Germany. The year is, appropriately, 1984, and he is Big Brother, watching. He sits in an attic day after day, night after night, spying on the people in the flat below.

The flat is occupied by a playwright and his mistress, an actress. Wiesler has been trained by his life to reflect no emotion. Sometimes not even his eyes move; he is like a cat awaiting a mouse. And he begins to internalize their lives -- easy, because he has no life of his own, no lover, no hobby, no distraction from his single-minded job. Then, something happens that will change his life forever.

Presentation organized for the Public Program of OAJA. For more information and to register, visit http://www.cgjungontario.com/courses.html#movies