CRITICA

Last night I saw a movie called, “My Octopus Teacher”, about the relationship between a man and an Octopus. The man, a burned-out documentary filmmaker, who is looking for healing, decides to return to the place where he grew up in South Africa and go on an underwater voyage in the Kelp forest near Capetown. Thinking he would start to film the beauty of the fish and the vegetation in these beautiful waters, he found himself intrigued by one particular Octopus. He visited her every day until they began to form a relationship and experience all the emotions that go with that. He was very gentle and did his best to attune to her movements, and look into her eyes, until their meetings began to occur seven days a week. They took place at her favorite spot under a rock where she could feel safe from the many sharks and other predators for whom she would be an excellent dinner. The man was fascinated by her intelligence, her ability to be strategic to protect herself from shark attacks. One of these strategies was to cover herself in shells and roll up in a ball so she could camouflage herself as a rock, when her predators began looking for their prey. The man became fixated on the octopus and woke up every day with excited anticipation of seeing her again. The Octopus too, began getting closer to the man and even landed on his chest with her eight arms and legs spread out in various directions. The trust between them was palpable. On one occasion, a shark followed her into her cave and bit off one of her arms. For a while she hibernated so she could heal the wounds while the man continued to visit her every day. Eventually, her arm began to grow back, and she was back to her normal life once again. Needless to say, the man was very broken up when he saw how she had been injured. Both of them were in a very vulnerable state, and the love between them was flowing more than ever. As Octopus’ only have a life span of one year, she eventually became weaker until she passed on. A shark came along and grabbed her remains, as the man began to feel the extent of his grief. This continued for quite a while but in the process of this relationship, the man, too, healed the pain, depression and hopelessness that he had before he began this journey. His outer relationships, particularly with his son, began to grow as he started to teach his son about this underworld, and they began to journey together. In addition, he founded a project where he took many children out to this underwater mystery and introduced them to the magnificent kelp forest. It was clear to me how much this film was symbolic of the analyst/analysand relationship.It is hard to say who is the analyst and who is the patient since they were both able to share this deep intimacy together which led to healing for both of them. As different as they were when they started this relationship, they learned to see their similarities, to feel this precious interspecies bond, and to open to love. There was consistency in their meeting every day at the same time and place. They created a safe container for themselves, where love could be fully expressed. When the relationship ended, which they both knew was going to happen, they each carried the other with them in their hearts, and there was no doubt that both of them had been changed by this experience. The man suffered enormous grief when their relationship came to an end, but he was able to integrate this loss into his deepest being, and could transfer this love and excitement to his son, and the many people he subsequently took on these journeys. The experience of the man and the octopus is also relevant to the bonds that form in groups, and the way the members help each other grow at the same time as they are growing themselves.