Mind Control in Inception

                Inception is a cleverly-crafted film about the ability to plant ideas in people’s minds through dreams. Cobb, the protagonist, is haunted by his late wife; having been accused of killing her, he can’t return home. Mr. Saito desires to dissolve the empire of his competitor, Maurice Fischer, and he hires Cobb to plant the idea in Fischer’s son, Robert Fischer, who stands to inherit his father’s empire. Cobb accepts the proposal, because Saito claims that he has the power to return Cobb home to his children.  Cobb hires Ariadne, an architectural student, to design the dream, since he himself is haunted by his late wife and his projection of her ruins the dreams that he crafts. He also hires a chemist, and they compile a team. On a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, Fischer is sedated, and the team enters the dream that they have designed. There are many layers of the dream (dreams within dreams), which buy the team more time and help them to deeply-root the idea in Fischer’s head, since he becomes progressively more confused as they descend through the dream’s layers.  The team is ultimately successful, and Cobb is reunited with his family in the end, courtesy of Mr. Saito.

                The main, most heavily emphasized theme of Inception is the ideas about psychological manipulation that it raises.  Psychologists attempt to guide people in the right direction and to help alter their thinking so that they can lead normal, productive lives. However, in the film, Cobb acts contradictorily to the basic premise of psychology, manipulating people’s minds for his own ends, and destroying his subjects. The film may be seen as a statement about the dangers of the field of psychology and mind control. There is a very fine line between helpful psychological counseling and manipulative controlling, and it must be carefully walked by experienced, sure-footed doctors. Obviously, Cobb does not respect this boundary, and he ultimately destroys the financial success of his victim, Fischer. By comparing the psychological actions of Cobb to the common practices of trained doctors, one may see that the film is essentially an issue of the dangers and boundaries of psychological manipulation.