The narcissistic mother uses her children. She controls them and starves them of love. In The Manchurian Candidate (1962), that is Eleanor Shaw Eslin, Raymond Shaw’s mother. Raymond is deeply convinced that he is unlovable.
No wonder he has enough hatred to be brainwashed into killing. “Yes, ma’am,” “Yes, ma’am,” and “Yes, sir” govern his answers.
For many people who experience narcissistic abuse from a parent, the idea of a controlling parent is not unreal.
The narcissistic mother is controlling, power-hungry, and selfish.
Thus, he becomes a Russian pawn of his power-hungry mother.
We know that foreign powers infiltrate elections. Maybe we could even say that Trump was the Manchurian Candidate in 2016. But how could a power-hungry mother infiltrate the mind of her love-hungry child?
If the child does anything other than listen and follow, he or she has lost it. This is dangerous when they don’t have anyone else.
What the Manchurian Candidate can teach us about narcissistic abuse
The Manchurian Candidate begins in the middle of the Korean War. America is in a cold war with Russia. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) has been in a cold war with his cruel mother Eleanor Shaw Iselin (Angela Lansbury) his entire life.
She controls the minds of her son and husband, Senator John Esslin (James Gregory), and collaborates with alien hackers. Along the way, she destroys every chance Raymond has at loving Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish).
Additionally, Eleanor Iselin is cruelly shrewd. I’m pretty sure Raymond has no friends. This is part of her power over him; To make sure he listens, she holds him alone in her grip.
We see him with his unit in the Korean War, and they call him “St. Raymond.” Not that he thinks he’s better; He just doesn’t know how to relate.
He stays alone because he doesn’t trust anyone. Why should he? He can’t trust his mother.
She teaches her husband and son not to think without saying so, and they cannot break this cycle.
The narcissistic mother’s mind control is insidiously hypnotic.
Because Raymond needs her, he has been her puppet for a long time. That is why it is also the main target of the Russians. It is not difficult to program. Eleanor has already done this job.
Raymond Unit is kidnapped and hypnotized by Dr. Yen Lu (Khiyi Dej) of the Pavlov Institute in Moscow. He became a “war hero” beloved by everyone who had never loved him before: “He is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I have ever met in my entire life.”
That’s what his platoon was programmed to say after winning the Congressional Medal of Honor for “Save Them All.” None of this is true, of course. He did not save them, and he does not have even one of those qualities. Raymond is trapped inside a cold and lonely wall of hatred.
Can he save himself? Try. As he steps off the plane to his mother’s war hero celebration, he says, “You organized this disgusting three-ring circus, Mum?”
She replies: “How could you, Raymond?” You know that my whole life is dedicated to helping you and Johnny. My children, my little children…
These are the humiliating and childish lies of the narcissistic mother. Professions of love, dedication, and self-sacrifice. Her real goal is to get rid of any weakness, helplessness, or fear in her. This is too much for a child to bear.
Raymond is asked to kill Mr. Gaines and take over his influential job. Raymond listens and follows. They have him. He shows no emotion at all.
But Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), Raymond’s superior officer in Korea, is conducting intelligence on the strange nightmares he and other soldiers encounter. He searches for clues to what happened to them, from images in his dreams. He remembers Raymond playing solitaire.
Ben Marco suffers horrific nightmares and wakes up screaming and remembering some truth that his brainwashing concealed: Raymond Shaw killed a man on the orders of Dr. Yen Lu.
He and another soldier were able to identify the same two people from Korea. He decides to go undercover to get intelligence on Raymond.
