This movie shows us how Dr. Malcolm Sayer contends to discover the catatonic disease that possessed some patients at a local hospital in a borough of Bronx, New York City. He also stands up to help the patients to experience the awakenings, when the other doctors leave him behind to solve that case alone.
Rather than just put emphasis on the sickness parts, I do look that this movie also tries to show some other aspects of life that we can learn and take the wisdom from it.
The major wisdom that I can get is it shows us how we really have to embed the feeling of gratitude within ourselves, anytime and anywhere, no matter how hard this life tries to bring us down.
In the movie, we can see how the patients of catatonic disease survive for a long time. Throughout that hard time, they could not really do something significant for themselves without the assistance of the practical nurse and doctor. When the time comes, where Dr. Sayer could find the right formula for them, the patients finally can feel the free feeling of how to live a life again. During that time, they always ask something that they used to have before and did something that they liked to do when they were still healthy. However, it turns out, they cannot embrace that precious time for forever. In the end, they return to the state when they were sick and they cannot do much again for themselves.
That is how the reality works. This film somehow reflects that all of us just have limited time to live in this world. No matter how strong and healthy we are now, someday all of us will face the death. Within our lifetime, we always want to have or experience something that we dreamed of, but we cannot always obtain all the things that we want. So, all we can do are accept and be grateful for what we have now. Always remember to be thankful of your life and everything that life gives to you for all this time. Do not forget to be grateful for many things that help you to relish and carry out the journey of this life. This whole world, your body, your senses, family, friendship, love, happiness, and even sadness, are the things that help you to create your own version of life story, which certainly will be different among each of us. If you always compared your life with someone who owns many things more than what you have, you might be end up with feeling of jealousy. Therefore, sometimes we have to push ourselves to look down. When we feel that we do not own enough things in this world, try to look at those underprivileged people and see how your life will be if you were in their position. You really have no idea how many people out there who would love to have what you have now. So be grateful, and you will feel the joy in running every second of your life.
God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you”? – William A. Ward
When Psychology Meets Films 