"Salinger"--the 2013 film documentary

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

I just watched the 2013 film documentary, “Salinger”.   Both narcissism and PTSD are central themes.  Although the documentary was largely panned by critics, for students of narcissism, as many of us are, the film is worth a look.  All reviews are welcome!

Richard   

[moonlight60]

Hello Dr. G ,

The 'Salinger" Documentary sounds great....


It is true there is a connection between Narcissism and PTSD....I lived it...

I will refrain from counting the ways...those days of victimhood are over...

Instead I have found compassion for myself (work in progress) and my experience with Narcissism..

My life is finally free ...with no regret...no more asking what would my life had been without the suffering...

I put my arms around pain and suffering and embrace both for the lessons learned.....

Everyone has their own capacity for forgiveness and love...

This I accept in every fellow man...

Love never fails

with Love and Light

Moonlight

[moonlight60]

Doc G..... Can not wait to see the Film .

Thank you
moon

[sea storm]

I have been watching this documentary and it is really great. There are a lot of pictures of Salinger and it follows his life scrupulously. His experiences in the war were shockingly dreadful, his romance with Oona O'Neill heartbreaking. There are so many things that really made me wonder about people's perception of Salinger.  The whole idea of him being a recluse was interesting.  They showed a man showing up at his door uninvited and wanting Salinger to answer probing questions. I thought that S. was polite, shocked and felt his privacy invaded.  The man who showed up thought Salinger uncaring and arrogant for not welcoming him with open arms.
As Salinger says.... he does not have the answers. His life reveals him to be a complex man who was pretty severely mauled by life and traumatized. It would have been impossible not to be that way under the circumstances.

I wondered why he left Oona to go off to war if he was so madly in love. Maybe that was just naive. It was sad to see how hurt he was by this and he was in no shape to be resilient as he was sunk in his trench in France.

I stopped watching it half way through. It is hard going but worth it. It is nothing short of amazing that he wrote
Catcher in the Rye while he was fighting in World War 2.  He was reaching for innocence in the midst of hell ascending.  I stopped watching when he got so entranced by the fourteen year old girl when he was 30. How nicely they danced over this. Or maybe not. Not for me anyway.  I guess I would like him to be heroic and he is only human.

I'll watch the rest of the documentary soon and thanks for recommending it.

Sea storm

[Meh]

The author?

Hum, never knew he was N afflicted. I may have to watch it.

[sea storm]

I don't know if he was a narcissist plain and simple. He certainly had grandiose ideas about himself being an author and felt he was absolutely destined for greatness. This is not an empty claim though. He was destined for greatness because he really was a great author. He thought that most authors were much beneath him and in some ways he was right.  His absolute belief in himself sustained him through years of rejection for the New Yorker. That quest for "greatness" is pretty questionable and once he achieved it, he saw it for an empty victory.

He didn't go around ruining lives for entertainment, seems he was not able to connect enough to do that. I think that he was a marvel in coping with his past experiences.

[sea storm]

Hi Moonlight,

I really thought about what you said about love and that it never fails. This is a very big thought and not a Western notion. Love may not win the race or get you a lot of money or the Pulitzer Prize but it is the way of healing.  There is a Buddhist practice where you bless the person who harmed you and surround him or her with compassion and light. I have no doubt that it helps the blesser a great deal.

I wonder what you mean though.

Blessing to you,
SEa

[Meh]

Okay Sea

[ann3]

Hi Dr. G,

The Salinger Doc was amazing.  Definitely agree with you re: Nism & ptsd.  Maybe it benefited him to be a hermit because his obsession with young girls & desire to control women could have hurt his reputation & book sales.  It seems he never emotionally evolved beyond Holden Caulfield.  We all love the teenager Caulfield, but it's not a good look as an adult.
I didn't realize that the critics panned it, but who cares.  Maybe they didn't like their idol being revealed.

[moonlight60]

Hi Sea ...
 I have not watched the film yet But I am familiar with Salinger's life and work...
Yes Love never fails...I suffered P.T.S.D. from child abuse.
The person who inflected this abuse suffers from N.P.D.
I after life long pursuit of relief from the trauma found my real answer.
In my flashbacks of trauma there was always  a scene replayed over and over which fueled my suffering.
Then finally after so much work... I saw all persons in the scene with absolute compassion and Love .
This forgiveness and compassion was my key ....to freedom more freedom than " I" expected.....
Not only was my pain gone...but I was able to give the person who inflected this pain true forgiveness a gift as much for me as for him.
From that point "I' was able to go within and find Bliss and Love that comes from not judging others or self...and really experiencing true love of self
which enables a person to see themselves in the eyes of every other person.. An understanding that there is not  us and them  ..but only us.

Thinking my way out of suffering was not my way......only through the heart may one see the world clearly....

Love to all
Moon

[Hopalong]

Just watched it, Doc G...fascinating and painful.

I felt sad for him in the way one does for a talented, charismatic narcissist who has suffered as he did.
A war just breaks people of every kind, N or not.

But, of course, I felt sadder for the women he never saw as equals and the children he didn't love.

Hops
PS--I never liked The Catcher in the Rye, so I didn't read more of Salinger...

[ann3]

I read Truman Capote's Answered Prayers, La Cote Basque & was amazed to find out that Salinger & Capote grew up in the same circles & in the same hood.  But, no surprise that Salinger claims he never met Capote, whom he found annoying.