Rian's Forum

I perceive that The Last Jedi explores the journey around the 3-6-9 triangle of the Enneagram, with special focus on previously unexplored aspects of Point Six. Type Nine children have a sense of being dispossessed – e.g., an orphaned farm boy on Tatooine… an abandoned child on Jakku… a child sold into servitude on Canto Bight.

At Point Three, the individual embodies an Archetype: the Hero… the Knight… the Master… the Prodigy… etc. They are men and women of action. Their image and their deeds become the stuff of timeless legends.

At Point Six, an individual is challenged with loss of faith in the basic goodness of human beings. At Point Six, the individual may become a death-defying martial arts expert in a dangerous world, to ensure their own safety and the safety of others. We have already seen this aspect of Point Six in previous episodes.

Another side of Point Six entails becoming a hardboiled, world-weary graduate from the School of Hard Knocks, characterized by: guardedness… vigilance… cynicism… etc. Questioning the basic goodness of human nature, there is the issue of whether some may be beyond redemption – e.g., a young Adolf Hitler… a young Anakin Skywalker… a young Ben Solo. At Point Six, the individual may also have doubts about himself and whether he brings good or ill to the world at large. This is the reclusive, middle-aged Luke that we see in Episode VIII.

Is bringing balance to the Force (externally) separate from bringing balance to our own Inner Psychic Ecology? It seems that for Luke Skywalker, in deep meditation on Ahch-To, it’s the internal harmonization of energies that brings him ultimate peace.

In addition to a biological mother and a biological father, we each have a psychically internalized parent. This Inner Parent (a.k.a., Superego) is an idealized self that is introjected from the environment – including the social values of a society that are encoded into its myths and legends.

Rey was abandoned by her biological parents and had to parent herself. Whereas Rey’s parents were dissolute, Rey herself is decent and upright. Her posture, her grooming, her diction, and her demeanor bespeak a strong Superego.

In a deleted movie scene, Rey explained that she was inspired by the legend of Luke Skywalker. Hence, the legendary Hero of the Galaxy was incorporated into Rey’s Superego. In that sense, Luke Skywalker really is Rey’s parent.

In the deleted scene, Luke toys with Rey’s emotional reactivity and inadvertently sends her on a wild goose chase. Rey becomes increasingly disillusioned with the idol that she incorporated into her Superego.

An Inner Parent may be essential to the wellbeing and protection of a growing child. However, an adult who is under the thumb of a parent – whether biological or psychically internalized – is in a state of self-infantilization. A full-grown, mature adult has no further need to be parented. Hence, Yoda comments to Luke: “We are what they grow beyond.”

(I actually take Yoda as Rian Johnson’s self-insertion into Episode VIII.)

Is this a philosophy essay?

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