Last time, I took an in-depth look at "Life on The Fast Lane", an episode from early on in The Simpsons' run that I seriously cannot say enough good things about. As noted, what I find particularly praiseworthy about this episode (other than Albert Brooks' performance as seductive French bowling instructor Jacques) is its tremendous trust in the power of understatement. It takes a devastating situation (Homer and Marge's marriage facing an uncertain future, Marge feeling alienated by her husband and falling in love with another man) and purposely avoids any overt vocalisation from either party about the state of affairs, preferring instead to let the visible, hushed hurt in the characters' actions speak for itself. The closest we get to any really explicit acknowledgement of the impending marital breakdown occurs during a conversation between Bart and Lisa, when the latter remarks that children witnessing domestic upheaval are fated to go through eight separate stages in coming to terms with their emotional disruption. She identifies herself as being at stage 3, Fear, and Bart at stage 2, Denial (which he immediately refutes). Later in the episode, Bart becomes distressed when he notices that his father has become a depressive, unresponsive wreck, at which point Lisa congratulates Bart for moving up a stage but admits that she is already too mired in stage 5, Self-Pity, to know what to do. Ironically, for the character who's the most upfront about the direness of the situation, Lisa's perspective on events is in many respects the most mysterious. Clearly, she has some deeper insight as to where she sees things as headed for Marge and Homer and what this will mean for herself, Bart and Maggie, which she only partially shares with her brother, and by extension the viewers. Specifically, Lisa tells us that there are eight stages to the process, yet she only identifies three. This begs the obvious question, what does the rest of her emotional chart look like?
Fortunately, we can take logical stabs at filling in the gaps, given that Lisa's eight-stage model comes across as a parody of the Kübler-Ross model, more commonly known as the Five Stages of Grief. Fear and Self-Pity do not feature in this model, but Denial does. Based on the writings of Swiss psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who actually posited the model as a framework for how terminally ill patients processed and coped with their diagnosis, it tells us that there are five stages to the grieving process: Denial, Anger, Depression, Searching/Bargaining and finally Acceptance. I've mentioned the Kübler-Ross model a few times previously whenever I've gone into my "Children's Lessons in Mortality" series. Something I have not acknowledged about the Kübler-Ross model, however, is that it's basically garbage. Scientifically, it holds about as much weight as Wilson Bryan Key and his demented ramblings about subliminal seduction. Kübler-Ross herself has acknowledged that her work has been misinterpreted and misapplied, and does not actually provide an apt reflection of how the bereavement process works. The model has certainly had a major influence on how the public perceives the grieving process, so that distinctive examples of the five different stages can be observed in representations of grief in everything from an episode of Alvin and The Chipmunks to the feature film The Land Before Time. The assimilation of the Kübler-Ross model into popular consciousness is an example of the public appropriating psychological concepts according to how they believe psychology should work, as opposed to how it does. In other words, it's pop psychology.
I can understand the appeal of the Kübler-Ross model. Bereavement is a painful, messy process, so many take comfort in the belief that there's a clear structure to it all and in the promise of light at the end of the tunnel. On the other hand, grief is such a difficult, intensely personal experience that I'm not convinced everybody appreciates having their pain whittled down into five easily comparmentalised stages, hence the mistrust and resentment of the model that's occasionally manifested in Groening's creations (for another, more straightforward example, see the Season 2 episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"). Going off the Kübler-Ross model, we can deduce that stage 4, which Lisa has apparently already worked her way through off of screen, is probably Anger. Stages 6 and 7 would likely be Depression and Searching/Bargaining, with Acceptance rounding things off at stage 8. The real puzzle, as far as I'm concerned, is what on earth stage 1 could be, if Denial is only stage 2. What could possibly precede Denial in the grieving process?
The answer to that question might actually lie in one of Groening's earlier projects, a Life in Hell comic first published in 1988, which was later reprinted in the Life in Hell compilation book Childhood Is Hell. Entitled "D-I-V-O-R-S-E", the strip took a sardonic look at the emotional traumas associated with watching one's parents' marriage disintegrate before one's eyes. Among the goodies included is "The 12 Stages of Divorce For Kids", a blatant and downright savage lampooning of the Kübler-Ross model. Perhaps this is an in-joke on the part of the Simpsons writers and this is indeed what Lisa is referring to when she says she's read about what happens to kids whose parents no longer love and cherish each other. It would be an interesting twist if Lisa was basing her assessment of the situation on a Life in Hell comic, of all things. Obviously, the two models aren't a brilliant match, as according the model proposed in Life in Hell there are no less than twelve stages to the process, but Denial and Fear are in there at stages 2 and 3, respectively, and Self-Pity does feature, albeit at stage 8 rather than stage 5. And at stage 1? Disbelief. At first, I wasn't entirely clear on how this would differ from Denial, although after some thought, I presume that Disbelief would be the sincere assumption that nothing is really wrong, whereas Denial refers to a state where, intellectually, you know exactly what you're up against but are still attempting to shield yourself emotionally.
Here's our full list of stages, according to Life in Hell:
1. Disbelief
2. Denial
3. Fear
4. Anger
5. Bargaining
6. Shame
7. Depression
8. Self-Pity
9. Out-Of-Body Experience
10. Empty Feeling
11. Looking Ahead
12. Secret Hope
The punchline to Groening's gag is of course that Acceptance, the aspect of the Kübler-Ross model that gives people hope that life does indeed go on, never actually comes. The closest we get is stage 11, Looking Ahead, which is accompanied by the image of a cartoon cat musing that, "Well, life goes on, I guess. Maybe. I think." The final stage, Secret Hope, would appear to belie the place of Acceptance altogether, for it shows a cartoon canine noting that his aged parents are standing side by side, and emitting the half-demented screech, "You got back together again!!!" In typical Life in Hell fashion, the strip assures us that emotional resilience is a sham, that our fragile young psyches absorb whatever emotional traumas touch us like a sponge and that the fall-out continues to haunt us long into adulthood. In that sense, it functions as a wonderful anecdote to the facileness of popular models such as the Kübler-Ross model (which, when you strip it right down, amounts to little more than a shrug and a "You'll get over it"). Whatever awaits at the final stage in Lisa's model, she seems to be deriving no comfort from it in the present, her dejected reaction suggesting that she has resigned herself to the role of a passive observer who can only sit back and let the whole unpleasant process take its course. I do not blame her for her moroseness. When you're in the midst of something as emotionally scarring as witnessing your every last shred of domestic stability fall apart, there are are few things more damning that anyone can tell you than "Life goes on." Isn't that precisely what you're afraid of?
No comments:
Post a Comment