Inside Out 2 recently hit cinemas and the kids are loving it! Actually though, so are the adults! This film has really hit that sweet spot where it is as much for adults as it is for kids. Why is that? Well because we all have feelings we don’t know what to do with, and like it or not, this “plot” never gets old. So, as a psychoanalyst, I would love to unpack why this movie feels so relevant when it comes to understanding ourselves on a deeper emotional level.
The backstory
First, a quick plot outline for those who haven’t seen it yet – don’t worry, there aren’t any major spoilers here. Riley, who we first met in the first film, is now a young teenager. She is going away with her two besties on Hockey Camp at the start of the Summer Break. This coincides with puberty hitting and a move to high school. Here, the combination of time away from home, surging changes in her body and big life changes, throws poor Riley in for a bit of a loop. The way her dilemmas come to life is in the brilliant way the film takes us into Riley’s mind into her “Command Center” where all her emotions, played by hard-hitting lovable characters, are hard at work keeping Riley on top of all these intense charges. There is so much to discuss about this film, but I will stick to two key ideas that felt really crucial in thinking about our emotions and why – even as adults – we often struggle processing how we feel about things.
Inside vs Outside
A key concept about our emotional worlds is right there in the name of the movie: Inside / Out. Our emotions are deeply affected by our environments. This may seem like an obvious idea but actually, as babies, it was a massive developmental milestone to negotiate the idea that what we need is ‘out there’ in the world and that in order to get what we need, we need to work to make it happen. Back then as babies, this “work” could have been to cry to get someone’s attention about your wet nappy, or to smile, to show someone you’d love a hug. So where do feelings come into all this? Well, feelings help us identify what we need. So going back to the previous example, as a baby, if your body is sore and wet, you feel scared or angry, and this then prompts an action like crying or calling. An adult example of this would be, if you lose your child in a supermarket, you feel fear, and this terrifying feeling then propels you to run for help. Like it or not, we cannot get what we want from the world without working for it and our feelings are like the bridge between ‘out there’ and ‘in here’. When you think about it this way, it makes a lot of sense. But the problem is that all too often we push our feelings away ( cognitively or through over-medication, for example) because they can feel so unpleasant. The trouble is that we then lose the very thing that is there to help us figure out what we need. And then things get in a terrible muddle. We watched this happen with Riley too!
Every emotion has an important purpose
Like it or not, we all have mixed feelings about…feelings. It’s really hard to trust that our feelings are there to help us identify what we need. And so often, as mentioned above, we push feelings away. In Inside Out 2, Riley experiences the surge of puberty where a bunch of new emotions suddenly hit the scene. Now instead of just having to contend with Sadness, Joy, Anger and Disgust. She also has some new kids on the block: Envy, Apathy, Embarrassment and the dreaded Anxiety. These intense emotions make for a full house and Riley has a tough time making a place for all her hard feelings. Now in small doses, each of these emotions is helpful, for example, Anxiety can help us pay attention and avoid danger. Sadness can be really healthy to feel, like when it comes to mourning something precious that is no longer there. This feeling then makes space for you to let go of the old and make space for the new. In the movie, Riley’s Anxiety decides that there isn’t enough space for some of the older feelings, that they are getting in the way, and banishes them to the back of the mind. Well now, isn’t that familiar? How many times have you told yourself, don’t worry about that, put it at the back of your mind? In the movie, we see what happens when we don’t face our feelings but suppressing them or banish the ones that don’t feel good. What I love about the movie is that it really brings this complex inner conflict to life which is incredibly relatable to both young and old!
The bottom line
It’s very clear that Inside Out 2 had some of the best psychology minds on hand helping them conceptualise this film, and the result is really exciting! As adults, it is so important to embrace what we are feeling and by doing that we are then in a better position to help our kids to not be afraid of their own inner worlds. This feels like such a helpful idea, also seen at the end of the film where we learn that self-compassion really goes a long way, that feelings are there to help us, and that living from the inside out, while hard, is a really winning formula!