“What the world witnessed at the Oscars was an astounding example perfect of self-defeat.”

By now you have thoroughly discussed, analyzed and developed your position on Will Smith and his smack down of Chris Rock at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. We can see that humor can be dangerous.  I wonder if that slap will inhibit Chris Rock’s  comic timing in the future.  Hard to say. 

I can see him developing a kind of left to right head twitch after every joke he makes from now on, kind of like a post-trauma memory of how things can go wrong real fast.   I have always known joking can be dangerous.

I have always known joking can be dangerous. At one of my younger brothers’ weddings down in Knoxville, Tn., my older brother, whose nature it is to never say anything directly and to always joke around, was interacting with two guys in the wedding party. I thought the conversation was going well until one of the guys said in an angry tone to my brother, “If you say one more thing, I’m going to punch you out.” What we seemed to have there was a failure to communicate, but hey it could have been way worse. Just think if my brother was talking to Will Smith.

So let us analyze this slap that was heard round the world. I would have to say that of all the many times I have seen people self-defeat, this one may find itself on top of the list. Granted, Tiger Woods’ sexual escapades may have cost him a fast $700 million in lost endorsement deals and former President Bill Clinton’s improprieties may have gotten him impeached. But Will Smith’s loss of control was so sudden and so bizarrely out of place that it gets the grand prize.

And let us immediately remove any Denzel Washington commentary from this discussion that the incident had anything to do with the presence of demons coming to attack you at the height of success. That is unless Denzel was referring to inner demons or what we call in psychoanalysis being under the influence of the Internal Saboteur.

Let me explain. Internal Saboteurs do exist in one’s unconscious and they were formed in childhood if the child had exceptionally bad parents. Children need to believe that their parents are good, so if they happen to be bad parents, the child will often set up a belief that the parents are good but it is the child himself who is evil and bad. Thus the Internal Saboteur is created, internalized, buried deeply in the unconscious where it remains dormant unless it is aroused later in life if and only if the person achieves something so great that it threatens the inner sense of evil that still sleeps within.

It is as if the person was trying to escape from an internal prison and the warden will have nothing of it. Thus the Internal Saboteur is awakened and prompts the person to do something insanely stupid and self-defeating like slapping an Academy Awards host in the face for nothing at all.

Welcome to the world of mental illness, self-defeat and loss when you least expect it. This is nothing new to us. There is a well-documented phenomena referred to as the Sport Illustrated cover jinx, which is what usually follows after an athlete is given a cover on Sport illustrated. There are many examples of athletes who imploded shortly after they were on the cover of Sport Illustrated, including Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, Michelle Kwan, Michael Spinks, Gerry Cooney, Thomas Hearns and Keyshawn Johnson. To me these are best explained by the presence of an Internal Saboteur which laid dormant and sprung out when least expected.

It is never pleasant to witness someone destroy a career in a matter of minutes. One can try to explain this self-sabotage with thoughts that Mr. Smith was maybe indignant or maybe drunk or maybe very protective of his spouse. All this may be so.

But if I had the power to see within the mind and the unconscious of Will Smith, I would be willing to bet that what I would see is a demonic presence sitting on some concrete throne, smiling and whispering to himself:  “Sorry, Will, I own you and you are not ever going to get away from me.”

And this is what happens to a person when they fail to address the demons that were formed in childhood.