Some of our readers enjoy Allen's movies. I do. My first date with the future Mrs. BD was to see Sleeper. Does the man have any moral foundation? I doubt it. Talent? Undoubtably. What is wrong with the people in the film biz?
A shrink friend sent me this comment:
“Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dylan and Truth or truth” (Or, “Would you read this if the title didn’t say “Woody Allen.”)
“Truth is truth,” Paddy Chayefsky stated. If only analysts could have that certitude, lost in the past few decades. Truth is relative, “constructed” in the present (transference), not historically accurate. Historical truth doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter at least. Except if a child was sexually molested: then truth matters, the real thing, what happened, was she or he seduced, assaulted. No “relative” here (for truth).But not a simple matter. Let’s listen to Jean Piaget (more neutral than Woody Allen).
Piaget said that for much of his childhood, he “remembered” that when he was in the pram with his nurse as an infant, he was kidnapped. Then, some years later, his nurse revealed that he had not been kidnapped; she simply hadn’t paid attention and his pram rolled away. He still “felt” that he was kidnapped, even as he learned the historical truth that he hadn’t been.
Now, Allen and Farrow (for this is mostly a tragedy that results from their stunning animosity); their children suffer from what the U.S. Army would call “friendly fire” (about nothing which is friendly when your shot dead). Their young adult adopted daughter is cited by a columnist as an example of someone molested by her father in childhood and the aftereffects into adulthood. But, Allen cites an extensive evaluation at Yale Child Study Center at the time of the alleged molest, that showed that she was likely not molested by father. If they are to believed, if our Yale colleagues are to be trusted to some degree, then we learn at least three things.
First, the now young adulthood victim believes that she was molested; she is a victim of animosity between her parents. Second, we learn respect for the adherence between love and hate (as Freud suggested); how love turns to hate when a “divorce” occurs.
Second, Farrow, married at nineteen to Andre Previn, has such animosity to Allen that she would make enduring accusations at the expense of her children’s well-being (her older son confirms that mother told the children to turn against their father).
And third, perhaps Allen’s last word on this may be dismissed by some.
Perhaps all that is left to us at this point is to recognize that some “truths” are not so relative; ain’t important. Truth about life events can really count. When we work with children molested, helping them recognize the true events of their, to explain why they feel and live the way they do, is one significant factor in this work.
Two parents rain animosity at each other over the decades; their children are shot down in this crossfire.
