Single-Issue Psychology/Quotes

"Don't mock me, my friend. It's a condition of mental divergence. I find myself on the planet Ogo, part of an intellectual elite, preparing to subjugate the barbarian hordes on Pluto. But even though this is a totally convincing reality for me in every way, nevertheless Ogo is actually a construct of my psyche. I am mentally divergent, in that I am escaping certain unnamed realities that plague my life here. When I stop going there, I will be well.

...Are you also divergent, friend?"

—L.J. Washington, 12 Monkeys

"I had an unhappy childhood. May I tell you about it?"

—This one French film.

Joel: "Ladies and gentlemen, today we are watching a film called I Accuse My Parents."
Tom: "Just to ground everybody, it's the one where the kid accuses his parents."

Crow: "But can parents and parents alone explain mental illness on the scale on the scale of young Jimmy's? Hm. Gee, that's be nice, but... Hey, let's try to map out the trail of his psychosis."

Tom: "We'll give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt and start with the film's hypotenuse, that at the center of Jimmy's madness we will in fact find his drunk folks."

Joel: (drawing on a whiteboard) "Right. Drunk folks concerning whom Jimmy lies."

Crow: "That's fine, but these are not simple utilitarian lies that satisfy you and me as we interact on a day-to-day basis."

Tom: "No no no no. These are elaborate lies - Joel, if you will? Through which Jimmy constructs a richly cuckoo fantasy world of love."

Crow: "Then he meets a nice young woman -- hey Jim, here's someone you might want to confide in! Truth, Jim."

All: "Truth, truth, truth, truth --"

Joel: "It's not gonna happen. Instead, Jimmy feels the need to denigrate others while simultaneously attracting others."

Tom: "Which leads, somehow, to a life of crime!. And yet he's ignorant that it is crime! Huh. Related back to the elaborate lies, perhaps, Jim? And where in god's name is the connection to our starting point --"

All: "Drunk folks."

Crow: "We shouldn't forget that Jimmy may be kinda stupid, Joel."

Tom: "Oh, Cambot, if you will?" (camera zooms out and a mobile descends from the ceiling) "Here we go. Now we've entered Jimmy's subconscious, as it spins and twirls to illustrate today's lesson: that true Jimmy-scale dementia is indeed a complex phenomenon."