Trap — Thirst is good for your mental health

Let’s talk about Trap (2024) and about how teen heartthrobs, fantasy, and nostalgia are actually beneficial to our mental health by exploring self-psychology concepts of selfobject needs and reparative relationships. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Show Notes:

Want to work together? I offer 1:1 psychotherapy (Ontario), along with tarot, horror, and dreamwork services, both individually and through my group program, the Final Girls Club. Visit my website to learn more.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship by Michael Kahn

Nostalgia as a Resource for Psychological Health and Well-Being by Clay Routledge, Tim Wildschut , Constantine Sedikides, and Jacob Juhl in Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7/11 (2013): 808–818, 10.1111/spc3.12070

​​‘It Was Never My Intention to Be a Heartthrob’: Josh Hartnett on Finding His Focus, Shedding the Darkness of ‘Black Mirror’ and That ‘Bats— Crazy’ ‘Trap’ Script by Emily Longeretta

Transcript

Welcome ghouls to today’s episode of Mental Health is Horrifying. I’m your Horror Barbie host of darkness — Candis Green— Psychotherapist and all around spooky bitch podcasting from my bat-filled cave in Toronto, Canada. 

I had absolutely no intention of doing an episode on M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, Trap, but over the long weekend we were organizing a family movie outing and to my delight, other family members also wanted to see this movie and it wasn’t just me forcing it on them due to my decades long thirst for Josh Hartnett. He was beautiful then, and he is beautiful now. He’s an amazing actor too, okay?! But what do you want from me… my inner teenage girl was LIVING. She was ALIVE. So we saw the movie and you know… something just clicked for me in terms of like, how good Josh Hartnett has been for my mental health? And how good he was for my mental health when I was a paralyzingly shy thirteen-year-old girl with hyperhidrosis. 

Okay — so let’s get right into it. Normally these episodes look into the plots of horror movies and how they represent mental health themes and ideas, but today, I’m taking a different approach. Today, let’s talk about Trap (2024) and about how teen heartthrobs, fantasy, and nostalgia are actually beneficial to our mental health by exploring self-psychology concepts of selfobject needs and reparative relationships. 

Movie synopsis:

This plot has virtually nothing to do with the important topic of thirst at hand today, but I’ll give you a quick overview anyway because I really did enjoy this movie, and not only because of Josh Hartnett (although he certainly helped), but also because I love M. Night Shyamalan movies and this one was filled with suspense and intrigue!

Unreasonably hot dad Cooper Adams takes his teenage daughter, Riley, to pop star Lady Raven's concert as a reward for her good grades. She’s actually played by Saleka Shyamalan, who is M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter! At the event, he notices the unusually high police presence around the concert venue. He learns from a vendor that the FBI plans to catch a serial killer known as "the Butcher", having learned they will be in attendance. We learn that Cooper is actually the Butcher, as he frequently checks in on the status of one of his captives, Spencer, through his cell phone livestream that he is holding hostage in a basement somewhere.

The head of this whole operation is Dr. Josephine Grant, an FBI profiler who has decades of experience catching serial killers and knows how to anticipate their moves and behaviour. SWAT and FBI personnel block every exit, and are checking every male over the age of 30 so Cooper starts to panic, not knowing how he will escape this situation undetected. But he’s in luck! As a serial killer and likely a sociopath, he uses his sociopathy to both befriend and then outwit various staff at the concert venue, gaining access to the roof, merch areas, and even burning a woman’s face with hot fryer oil at the concession stand to create a diversion! Good thinking. 

Pop star Lady Raven performs her song “Dreamer Girl” and she brings up a young girl from the audience to dance with her on stage. Cooper, once again using his ability to lie pathologically and convincely, tells concert staff a fake story about his daughter Riley’s struggle with leukemia to elicit sympathy so she gets chosen to go on stage BECAUSE this also comes with the ability to go backstage, which Cooper has learned (when he stole a police radio) this area is not being combed as closely by the FBI. 

Lady Raven learns that Cooper is the Butcher because he tells her, and they all wind up in her limo together heading to Riley’s house where the carefully curated boundaries between Cooper’s life as a serial killer and unreasonably hot dad begin to come dangerously close together. Lady Raven uses her powerful social media presence to crowdsource info on where Spencer is being held captive and some randos go rescue him. Good for him! She also divulges Cooper’s identity as the Butcher to his family and they are UPSET but he runs away, but is eventually apprehended by the police.

In the final act, we learn that the entire trap was actually set by Cooper’s wife Rachel who suspected him of being the butcher a really long time ago. He is captured by SWAT officers and taken away in handcuffs. The movie ends with us inside the police van with Cooper, as he picks the lock on his handcuffs and laughs both maniacally, and sexually. 

Movie background info:

Okay so let me tell you about my relationship with Josh Hartnett. 

It all started in 1999 with the release of The Virgin Suicides, a movie adaption of one of my favourite books of all time written by Jeffrey Eugenides with the movie directed by Sophia Coppola. And there was this GUY in it, who played a high school heartthrob named Trip Fontaine and he was… glorious. I immediately bought every imaginable teen magazine available in 1999 with Josh Hartnett’s picture on it to learn as much as I could about the man I was sure to marry one day. 

Fast forward a couple of years to 2001 and the release of mega blockbuster Pearl Harbor. Did I, a 15 year old girl in Canada, care literally AT ALL about World War 2? No I did not, but I did care about Josh Harnett wearing a white tank top and soothing Kate Beckinsale’s broken heart and like saving America or whatever.

I ripped out photos of him from those teen magazines and absolutely plastered by bedroom walls and the inside of my locker with them, completely enraptured by the beauty of this gorgeous creature and his depth, his ability for romance, the way he just peered right into your soul like he really knew you, you know? 

I saw every movie he was in and like AS IF he was in incredible horror classics too like Halloween H20 (HELLO, I DIE), The Faculty (dead again), 30 Days of Night, O, and then other random movies I had no reasonable business being interested in like Black Hawk Down, or Lucky Number Slevin. 

Apparently this entire time Josh Hartnett was having a hard time with this heartthrob label as he felt it limited him and started becoming more selective with his roles. He needed to take a bit of a step back because there were also some fans who stalked him and were doing some pretty scary stuff! As much as we’re having fun here in this episode, we need to remember that celebrities are people too and that stalking is bad.

So while Josh took a beat to regroup and become more selective in his work, he was still out there of course. It wasn’t necessarily that he stopped acting, he just stopped acting in the type of movies a thirsty teenage girl like me would have continued paying attention to so that’s why so many of us including Hollywood have labeled this movie a sort of “comeback” for him. 

But those who know KNOW that true love lasts a lifetime. And that relationship, that love, fulfilled many psychological needs for an awkward teenage girl like me who needed to use prescription antiperspirant due to out of control hormones from a ridiculous growth spurt. 

Selfobject Needs

What is this podcast about? Right, psychology. Let’s talk about that. 

Heinz Kohut, famed psychoanalyst best known for the development of theories about self-psychology, talked a lot about how all humans possess healthy amounts of narcissism. Now before the development of his theory of self-psychology, narcissism was purely thought of as a negative or destructive thing. Even today we have a negative connotation to that word to generally refer to someone who is selfish, grandiose, only cares about themselves, and can even be abusive. 

But Kohut had a deeper understanding of what narcissism actually is, expand its definition, and was able to help us understand it as a way that humans engage in self-love. 

Narcissism is about the development of the self, and this begins in early infancy. Would you say that a baby is narcissistic? Not really in the traditional sense right – like babies aren’t out here plotting against the other babies at daycare to mastermind an insurrection so they get the most attention from the daycare staff or whatever. 

The purpose of healthy narcissistic development is to move the individual towards a cohesive sense of self, providing secure identity, values, meaning, worth, and self-actualization. The primary way that this is achieved is through what Heinz Kohut referred to as selfobjects, or selfobject needs.  Specifically, he stressed the importance of healthy, secure relationships for promoting a person’s sense of self-cohesion. In particular, dependence on others becomes salient during life transitions and traumatic experiences that can disrupt a person’s narcissism.

Kohut therefore named these significant others selfobjects and viewed them as

playing a vital role in the development of healthy narcissism. 

For example, a teddy bear is a selfobject for a baby or toddler who is having a tantrum, crying, and hugs the teddy bear to feel comfort and security and self-regulate. And here’s a little secret – therapists actually provide selfobject needs for clients as well from an attachment perspective, who are seeking to find a sense of self-cohesion and need help fulfilling that need through an attentive, attuned, insightful therapist who is able to help them achieve this. 

Reparative Relationships 

So let’s picture me at 15 — this sweaty, gangly, socially awkward teenage girl. As you might imagine, I was not popular with boys. I was great at sports though. Amazing at volleyball.

But the boys my age weren’t so great either. My favourite Backstreet Boy, Nick Carter, was referred to by the boys in my class as Dick Farter. The one boy I did briefly go out with punched me in the face. I didn’t go to prom with anyone like the movies said I would, I was regularly told I was too tall not only by boys but also by teachers. I wanted to participate in the Spice Girls platform shoe trend, but was admonished by adults in my life telling me I looked like Big Foot sasquatching his way through the woods when I wore shoes like that and I was better off wearing flats. Flats! Baby Spice did not wear flats. 

When I opened my locker and saw Josh Hartnett’s dreamy deep-set eyes gazing back at me from the ripped out page of Teen People magazine, I felt like a regular 15-year-old girl with a crush. Like that kid who reaches for a teddy bear to feel better when they are scared or upset, I would look at my picture of Josh to feel a sense of love, belonging, and romance. In my fantasy, I could image that I was cool enough or pretty enough or sweat-proof enough to be asked out on a date by someone like him, and we would eat ice cream and walk down by the water, and I would be laughing and carefree and I would be wearing my tallest platform shoes because not only did Josh not care how tall I was, but he’s 6’3 (Teen People told me). 

Not only was Josh Hartnett a selfobject for me to help me with my confidence and get me through those tough, lonely teen years, he also served as a sort of reparative relationship. A reparative relationship is one that heals wounds from the past, and gives us something we need that we never really got. Josh did this for me. The fact that someone like him existed, both out there in Hollywood and also in the world I created in my mind, gave me hope that one day I might find someone like him in my own little part of the world, and he would love me too. 

Fantasy

Okay now before you start wondering about delusions, let me give you a bit of insight on how healthy, creative engagement with fantasy is actually highly therapeutic. 

Engagement with fantasy scenarios – whether they be through active imagination, dreaming, reading, role-playing, or even fantasy game playing, offers a space where the possibility for change is easily accessed, especially where that change may be difficult to imagine. The use of metaphors and altered narratives can give a person a sense of empowerment. Fantasizing about specific goals or the fulfillment of unmet needs can foster creativity, help someone better understand their wants and needs, and even enable them to plan for the future.

There is an emerging form of therapy – called geek therapy – where therapists actually incorporate things like tabletop role-playing games into sessions to help fellow nerdy clients connect to their own sense of fantasy and self-empowerment. This is partially why I incorporate tarot into my sessions – to encourage clients to think outside the box, imagine what it would be like to be an Empress sitting in a glorious field of fresh grasses, and see outside the perceived limitations of their daily lives. 

Nostalgia 

There was something synchronistic about seeing the daughter in the movie, Riley, fan girling out for her favourite pop star, Lady Raven. The way she was screaming, and jumping up and down, and was so star struck that she could barely even speak when she met her. Her excitement touched something inside of me – my own inner teen I think – as I saw her fangirling while standing next to her dad in the movie, Josh Hartnett. It pulled me backwards and forwards in time, and brought back this feeling of intense nostalgia – and not really the kind that stings or makes you feel sad, but I sort of quiet joy and comfort where my inner teen felt soothed, noticing Josh’s and my own age now like wow – we grew up. And I have this good life now.

Nostalgia was once regarded as a negative psychological phenomenon and it certainly can still have negative impacts if we dwell too much in the past, wish to return to that time, or regard it as wholly better than our present, but it can have positive mental health impacts as well. 

Nostalgia does more than serve as a comfort. It also benefits our mental health by affirming social belonging, alleviating loneliness, and enhancing our sense of meaning. Because our lives gain meaning when we look at where we’ve come from, our past experiences, and when we show reverence and appreciation for this place. When we revisit happy memories, our brains release feel-good chemicals like dopamine, giving us a natural high while helping to reduce stress and anxiety. 

And sitting in that movie theatre, connecting with my inner teen, and reminiscing about the avalanche of teen magazines scattered about my bedroom floor and the carefully ripped out pictures of Josh Hartnett? Yes – can report warm fuzzies accompanied by a total reduction in stress in anxiety. Trap is just good for your mental health, okay?!

Conclusion

There’s this book that I love called How to Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran and in it, she talks about how incredibly powerful teenage girls are. They, individually and collectively, have the ability to fuel pop culture movements like the Beatles, or Elvis, or BTS, and those movements are fuelled mostly just through their feelings. These girls, screaming, crying, feeling so much for this piece of art, this fantasy dreamboat that they’ve built part of themself around, that fills up something inside of them that they needed so badly. She talks about how we dismiss teenage girls, we laugh at them, and think their girly fandom is juvenile and embarrassing – but our feelings, or desire for our own wholeness amidst a world that left us hungry and wanting – it’s a force of nature. 

And my thirst for Josh Hartnett is a force of nature that will never end. 

Outro:

And that my ghouls is the story of Trap. I mean… it wasn’t really the story of Trap it was more the story of Josh Hartnett and his legendary handsomeness and appeal but you know Trap was actually a really good movie! I highly recommend! I have seen virtually all M. Night’s movies (I think my favourite is the Sixth Sense) I mean UGH epic twist! But Trap was the vehicle that delivered the Josh renaissance to us this time around okay! And we are grateful to M. Night and the CASTING DIRECTOR Douglas Aibel of this movie (I looked that up) for bringing that important mental health resource to us. Blessings to all involved.  

Mental Health is Horrifying is entirely researched, written, edited, and produced by me, Candis Green, Registered (and spooky) Psychotherapist, with artwork by the ghoulishly talented Chloe Hurst. If you like this podcast, please consider rating and reviewing on your preferred listening platform. It really helps the show to reach all the other spooky ghouls out there and I will be eternally grateful – and an eternity is a very long time for a vampire, okay? 

If you live in Ontario and are interested in psychotherapy with me, I offer talk therapy mixed with the magic of tarot. I offer other services too around tarot, horror, and dreamwork including through my group program, the Final Girls Club. You can follow me on Instagram at @manymoonstherapy and you can also learn more about me and my services through my website manymoonstherapy.com.

OR you can also howl at the moon and I will hear your call.

Bright blessings.