In my version, I will maintain the format of the original, beginning with a monologue about my experiences in life and therapy which will be in part a parody of Somers’ speech and in part revelatory of my life. This will be filmed in park locations in New York and London and edited together so as to create the illusion that I am seamlessly strolling through these geographically distant environments. The self-help experts of Somercise will be replaced with my psychologist-parents and the therapists who I have had throughout my life. My divorced parents will give their opinions on what it takes to have healthy loving relationships. My current therapist Bernadette Ainsworth, who practices Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (R.E.B.T.) will address the myth of self-esteem. The psychoanalytic therapist I saw throughout high school has declined being in the film because she needs to maintain her anonymity. Since meeting with her for research purposes I have scripted the scene of our re-acquaintance and will dramatise this with my therapist played by an actress.
By simultaneously playing into and confounding the stereotypes of the ‘self-help guru’ my aim with this piece is to dispel the notion of the mythically self-assured, autonomous subject that underpins so much self-help advice. I am interested in illuminating the perspective of a modern psychoanalytic therapist on this subject especially in terms of the concept of the unconscious. Likewise, it will be useful to address the R.E.B.T. perspective on self-determination, particularly in light of the fact that accepting one’s fallibility and imperfection as a human being is so fundamental to its philosophy. I hope that the overall message of the film will be thought-provoking and positive in its realism while at the same time comedic in its parodic elements.