This year’s Academy Awards® winner for Best Picture is “The King’s Speech.” It is interesting to note that motion pictures which are inspirational, become contenders for, and ultimately win Best Picture tend to involve the workings of the constructive mindset in contrast to the destructive mindset. “The King’s Speech” is no exception.
A quick review: the destructive mindset blames the self or others in the context of emotions and the thoughts that go with them, resulting in power relationship dynamics; the constructive mindset focuses emotions and thoughts on the injustice at hand, resulting in collaborative relationship dynamics to attain justice.
It becomes apparent during the movie that Lionel Logue, having been taught by experience, recognizes the value of the person, and the need to be understood as one is. He applies this constructive principle even to British royalty, not backing down with assuming a familiar relationship stance with the man who eventually becomes King.
Of course it is difficult to be thrust into the public spotlight, giving speeches to boot. But if you know you stammer, and all eyes are on you, how do you cope? The story displays how Lionel learns of the background of the stammering Bertie. He is truly left handed but has been forced at a young age to write with his right hand. We are left to imagine the painstaking work he has to do to deny himself and believe he is somebody only if he writes with the “proper” hand. It becomes the seed of the destructive mindset: “I am a problem because I am left handed.” This thought is not explicitly portrayed in the movie, and so I write it as an assumption, but it is a common mindset against the self in such circumstances.
Lionel’s techniques to help Bertie have to do with releasing him from his self-loathing destructive mindset. Bertie reads Hamlet while listening to music. He is distracted from focusing on himself while speaking, and becomes liberated to speak flawlessly. It is also noted that when Bertie is angry, he is able to speak flawlessly. His thinking and therefore speech becomes targeted on another person rather than thinking about himself and his performance. In this situation, he is successful to speak in the context of a destructive mindset focused on another person. Although not constructive dialogue, it is nonetheless effective in giving him a voice.
Lionel’s support for Bertie as a person helps him to overcome his fears, which are understood destructively. “Because I stammer, I must be a potato.” Lionel wishes to have a relationship as though they are equals, which is conducive to forming the constructive mindset. While delivering the decisive wartime speech, Lionel directs Bertie to speak to him “as a friend.” Lionel conducts Bertie as an orchestra, achieving flow and focus away from himself. Bertie’s successful delivery emboldens him to believe in himself. “I am no longer a potato.” He becomes free to lovingly embrace his daughters, rather than treating them with distance according to his position. Bertie’s support also comes from his wife and indirectly from his father when he learns of his father’s supportive dying thoughts about him.
The King as portrayed in the movie becomes a “poster boy” for those who stammer and stutter. This is a commonly employed and effective technique for those suffering from various afflictions. In Canada, successful Olympic athletes have recently been used in the hopes of demystifying mental health disorders. It is a principle of working to attain a constructive understanding of the situation. A person may think: “If I have a mental disorder, I must be a potato.” But in the face of realizing a celebrity has a similar mental disorder, the thoughts may become: “I never considered her to be a potato, and yet she has a mental disorder. I have a similar mental disorder. It must mean that I am not a potato either! I have a disorder that is the potato and there is treatment for it!” Similarly, the problem of stammering is demystified in the movie, in the sense of recognizing it is a treatable condition, and not a flaw of the person as a person.
That is why a movie like “The King’s Speech” is effective and inspiring. Common people become free to rise above the destructive mindset against the self, and soar to creative heights as they strive toward fulfilling lives in the context of affliction rather than being downtrodden and hopeless because of the affliction.
The text of the speech itself is designed to point out the potential tragedy of living at the whim of the destructive mindset as applied politically, and why it is essential to understand and uphold the constructive mindset. The stakes are high indeed. The movie appropriately brings in constructive balance when the speech is delivered. The political crisis has to do with the destructive policies of the German dictator Adolf Hitler. The constructive speech of King George VI of England is delivered to the inspiring music of the German musician Ludwig van Beethoven. The problem is the politics of a destructively-minded tyrant; the German people are not the problem.
“The King’s Speech” brings out two applications of the destructive versus the constructive mindset. On a personal level, the constructive mindset can help an individual overcome personal problems, like stammering. On a national level, the constructive mindset can inspire people to overcome destructive tyranny. May we learn to apply the constructive mindset to our personal problems, as well as to all nations and peoples as we sort out the various political conflicts in our world.