An Analysis of A State of Mind

Wh... what does that title even mean?

Am I supposed to analyze my state of mind, or something? Because like, whoooo boy we do not want to get into that right now. My current state of mind is "I could really go for a Dr. Pepper" and I'm absolutely certain I don't want to know what's behind that. Thankfully Sigmund Freueuedeu(is that enough e's?)'s theories on psychoanalysis have largely been discredited, because otherwise it's probably something to do with your mom.

I hope that's reassuring to you, but it's not helping us figure out what I'm supposed to be writing about in this post. Analyze means to look quite closely at something, but that's sorta difficult when you don't know what you're supposed to be looking at.

Oh obviously. Thanks, Google.

Though, actually, that's a slightly reductive definition of analysis. It's a word that springs from medieval Latin (attested to in English in the 1580s), and the component bits find their roots in Greek, and it actually means to break something complicated up into simpler pieces. The intent is therefore not simply to suggest that you look at something closely, but rather that in the process of study you break that thing down such that it's easier to understand. You can't just look at a rock under a microscope and say it's a rock, you have to understand what makes up that rock otherwise your analysis has failed.

Which in a way I suppose is what we're trying to do with the title of this post, come to think of it. Let's break it down further; An Analysis. Both capitalized, which makes sense given convention that the first letter of a title will be capitalized, along with any major words within it. State of Mind similarly follows title case standards. But that "A" there... that suggests something else. Perhaps the beginning of a new title? Is that a title embedded in a title? Is this supposed to be a movie review?

Your analysis has failed.

Wait, what? Why is that the pull quote for this situation? Does that mean it's not a movie? I mean I've never seen a movie called A State of Mind, but... Is there even a movie called that? Help me IMDB, you're my only... huh. So am I supposed to be analyzing the 2004 documentary chronicling the preparation of two young North Korean girls for the Mass Games? The... wait, the mass games? What is this, olympics for catholics? I'm joking of course, it's North Korea. Pretty sure nobody there eats well enough for that to just be a poorly-translated sumo wrestling competition, though.

Oh, okay, apparently it's a month-long choreographed gymnastics performance. It's all about blending into the group and from the pictures online looks to be yet another case of a dictator stroking their own ego by exploiting their people. So that tracks, I guess.

Of course the title could also be referring to A State of Mind, a 2021 picture about a guy struggling with mental illness. That does sound like a very 2021 sort of thing to do, come to think of it. A real "of it's time" sort of thing, whether that was intentional or not. Apparently the past three generations of dudes in his family committed suicide as a result of mental health struggles, and the synopsis on IMDB kinda makes it sound like it's genetic? I suppose poor brain chemistry could be genetic. Evidently this is threatening his "promising writing career", so like, I can feel that.

Well, that's all very fascinating, but it's not really helping either. Maybe this is supposed to be a fiction review? Have I ever read a book called A State of Mind? I feel like that's probably an unreasonably common book title. Like, if there aren't a hundred different psychological thrillers in the Amazon self-pub scrap-heap titled A State of Mind I will literally eat my socks. And not like one of my good pairs. One of the old, ratty ones.

I will literally eat my socks.
...the old, ratty ones.

Wait, what?? Why is that a pull quote!? It's not even a demonstration of why I should follow through on my obviously facetious jest! It's just a stupid misrepresentation of what I said! This article is laid out like a maniac is doing all the work. Is that what I'm supposed to be analyzing? The state of mind of the heathen who's in charge of this article?

Throw a title up there that means nothing and has no relation to anything I'm a subject matter expert in, and then just randomly pull out quotes that add nothing to the reading experience! I'm pretty sure we're done here. You want an analysis of a state of mind? How about this one; you're constantly chasing validation because society tells you you're valid but deep inside you know it's a lie because the entire width of your forebrain was scrambled by a coat hanger.

Now leave me alone you psychopath.