This is a video about psychology, therapy, and the television series Mr. Robot. You don't need to have seen the series to watch and understand most of this. It contains some indirect spoilers, mainly from the first season (I tried not to spoil important plots after that as best as I could). If you haven't seen the show or have only seen part of it, I hope this inspires you to watch it until the end. It is worth your time, especially with the themes and topics that follow in mind. 

Let's begin. I would like to start this video with a poem by the Sufi poet and scholar Rumi. You may have heard it before... I hope that the following video can provide some deep understanding of it. It begins like this: 

Human beings are like a

When are we really ourselves? Are we ourselves in work meetings? At home, on the sofa? When we are with our best friends or loved ones? What constitutes our self? We are not our clothes, our possessions, our groups of friends, our ideologies, our body parts, our thoughts. We can separate ourselves from any of these things, and yet the experience of us remains in some way. It is this continuous, coherent, separate, unique flow of experience that feels like ourselves. As long as my experience of my being continues, I am me... right? 

Our experience of reality definitely feels like a distinct, unique, coherent flow of existence. But as we delve deeper into the nature of experience, studying how the brain and mind work, and truly observing our entry into reality as it is, we begin to notice something subtle, yet quite important. We start to notice that our perception and experience of reality is not reality itself. Perception plays a series of tricks on us, and we confuse those tricks for reality. 

Take vision, for example. We assume that our sight is presented in the world as an uninterrupted, continuous stream of vision. But cognitive science shows that our experience of the world is actually based on a series of discrete moments, like frames of a movie, which are then stitched together by the brain to give the illusion of coherence. A similar deception of the mind occurs when we create a sense of objects. We look

A lot of earth, rocks, trees, etc. Each one was made of smaller things like molecules and atoms. We automatically justify these small parts in the grand idea of a mountain, and we take that idea of the mountain as the real thing. Then we pile more projections on top of these mental representations when our automatic emotional reactions start to kick in. We do this with anything, all the time. It’s simply how our brains make sense of an endlessly incomprehensible universe. Perception is a lens, and each lens is slightly deformed by the character of our minds. The more developed our minds become, the further our experience drifts from this world of ideas and mental projections, further from the raw sensory experience of these things. And we, unaware of this, begin to confuse this filtered experience of reality with reality itself. This is a large part of what Buddhists refer to as Avidya or ignorance. What we experience as reality is really a series of mental filters, distortions, and preconceptions that more or less completely divorce us from reality itself, and it is these distortions that create our suffering. Instead of simply taking the raw experience of reality as it is, we live in a world of stories, mental constructions, and idealized things that are never the complete or accurate picture. The most cardinal of these distortions, according to Buddhism, is the distortion of our perspective of selves. Buddhism prominently asks the question of individuality: What is the

And how much of our conception of it is dictated by this distorted lens? You might be starting to see where I'm going with all of this, given the title of this video. But let's put a bookmark in the philosophical discussion and talk about my new favorite television show, Mr. Robot. Mr. Robot is about... a lot of things, honestly. A group of revolutionary hackers who take down the corporate owners who manipulate society and, consequently, the global economy. It's about the reality of anarchy, what mass destruction does to human beings. It's about what those human beings do in the face of social collapse. It's about the deceptive facades of society and what happens when those facades start to crumble. It's about the political elites who pull the strings and how far those strings reach. It's about control, the illusion of control, and losing control. It’s also about disconnection. Disconnection is deeply interwoven throughout the show on multiple levels—in its composition, its world, and the people who live in it, its plot, and how all these things relate to one another. This is continuously emphasized by the show's visual language, where characters are often filmed off-center to communicate a feeling of separation. But it is a theme primarily exhibited through its main characters. Elliot is deeply disconnected from himself, his family, his friends, his past, and the world around him. Dominique DiPierro, consumed by her work as an FBI agent, is completely alone in her social and romantic life.

As we start using chat rooms and talking to Alexa, resembling human interaction, we witness Angela becoming increasingly isolated as she ascends the stairs of Ecorp, while society crumbles around her. Darlene is dissociated as she experiences the reality of her plans unfolding. Society is continuously depicted as completely disconnected due to modern lifestyles. Much of the show explores not only how this disconnection affects us on both personal and societal levels, but also... how we can fix it. 

I believe that, at its core, Mr. Robot is a story about self-discovery, integration, transformation, and healing. The entirety of the narrative is chaotic, and the chaotic plot showcases Elliot—a young man deprived of his rights, disconnected and dissociated, whose well-intentioned plot to start a revolution leads him to delve into the depths of a criminal underworld that surpasses his imagination. And all of this happens only in the first season. 

The story takes an unimaginable series of twists, turns, and some of the most creative, stylistic, and audaciously subversive direction to date. But underlying all this external chaos are Elliot's internal struggles to understand and come to terms with his own fractured self. This is where, from my perspective, Mr. Robot truly stands out as a masterpiece—in both the depth and execution of this theme. The incredibly realistic and profound portrayal of how radical and transformative healing can manifest in a person. To understand Elliot's psychological journey, it is best to

And its inverse, disintegration. If integration is the cooperation of multiple parts toward a healthy and collective whole, then disintegration is the dysfunction of those parts. The separation of them, the inability to exist and work together. Integration could be said to be the goal of all therapy and medicine—the cohesive functioning of our body and mind. In psychoanalysis, integration is defined as the process by which a well-balanced psyche becomes a whole, through the opposition to the fragmented effect of defense mechanisms. This is the key idea behind disintegration: the fragmenting effect of defense mechanisms. This fragmentation often occurs in response to trauma. Unable to face the intensity of a situation, we dissociate from it in order to manage, suppress, and silence the memory. But unfortunately, this suppression of traumatic memory does not make the trauma disappear from our minds and bodies. It remains as a large part of us, pushed into the dark basement of our subconscious, only surfacing when reminded and consequently withdrawn again, what we call triggers. The key to integration is bringing those fragmented parts back together so they can be resolved and healed. It is like removing a splinter from the body. The traumatic material acts as an obstruction to the system, and it is only when we cover it with awareness and learn to dissolve it properly that the mind can begin to heal. Integration is absolutely the foundation of how most modern therapies work.

Freud's psychoanalysis, his ideas about the subconscious and the subpersonalities that exist within it, established the foundational work for most of our most powerful mental health therapy systems today. His Id, Ego, and Superego have been constructed and expanded in countless ways, one of which shares many commonalities with the psychology found in Mr. Robot: Internal Family Systems. 

Internal Family Systems is the idea of subpersonalities or parts. Internal Family Systems and the psychological schools that influenced it do not see our self as an individual and irreducible personality, but rather as a centralized network of subpersonalities that sometimes work together and sometimes are in conflict. Integration, in this context, would be the harmony between these parts, while disintegration would be conflict and chaos. 

This multiplicity of being, this idea that the psyche is not a single individual entity, operates contrary to many established ideas about ourselves. In the end, we refer to people as individuals, unable to be further divided. There is nothing truly individual about a person; we are, by nature, a system of bodily parts, organs, cells, and atoms working in synchronization. Saying that we are individuals is a simplification of a convenient illusion. This same conclusion has become even more embraced regarding the brain and mind, as neuro and psychological sciences investigate them. Our minds are not an individual entity, but rather a complex system of neuropsychological networks that sometimes manifest as

Not only people with personality disorders. A similar understanding was a component of the reframing and redefinition of what was previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The problem faced by people with DID is not that they have multiple personalities, but that they occasionally dissociate from their primary personality, taking on a different personality that is often unknown to the people in their lives. Typically, they have no memory of these episodes. The issue in the case of DID is that the person suffering from it lacks the ability to regulate these multiple personalities. A significant part of therapy involves learning how to regulate our internal family. The first step towards this is learning about our parts. Internal family systems primarily focus on three subpersonalities. These three subpersonalities are: Protectors, Managers, and Exiles. Protectors are our deepest defense mechanisms, the parts that try to calm us, distract us, or in the worst cases, shut us down in response to trauma or overwhelming emotions. Managers are the parts of us that impose order through care, criticism, and reprimands to prevent things from getting out of control. Exiles are the parts of us that are deeply damaged and hurt, which we push away and repress to avoid being exposed to the intense feelings they carry. Each of these parts serves as members of the internal family for the purpose for which they were created. Protectors keep us safe. Managers maintain order. Exiles tell us which wounds need

Often, that purpose is to keep us alive and sane. But often, those parts, which are defense mechanisms, begin to carry an increasingly larger impulse and take on a primary role in our personality. By leaving them unchecked and unbalanced, they magnify and start to take over our lives, causing damage to ourselves and to our relationships with others. An overwhelming protective part can manifest as an addiction. An out-of-control managerial part can manifest as chronic self-hatred. An exiled part may appear as anxiety or a stress disorder. When this happens, our natural reaction is to demonize them, suppress them, push them away, and fight against them. But like anything in the mind, this resistance only serves to worsen the problem. As we witness Elliot's journey, we see that the rejection of accepting and working with these parts only leads to more discord and tension. Okay, I know that was quite a bit of information. Let's review it, as this is quite important to understand moving forward. Integration is the harmonious idea of working together of the separated parts of the body and mind. In psychoanalysis, this is achieved by undoing the emotional and psychological fractures caused in response to trauma. Internal family systems suggest that the human psyche is composed of many subpersonalities, either working together or in conflict. The harmony of these subpersonalities constitutes a large part of psychological well-being. When these subpersonalities are in conflict or cut off from one another, we become diss

Part IV: Disintegration

It is in this state of total disintegration that we find Elliot throughout most of the story. In the first season, we have a portrayal of Elliot as completely dissociated from the world around him. Despite what seems to be a relatively stable life, he is regularly hit with episodes of immense, overwhelming sadness—spontaneous crying episodes that lead him to use drugs, specifically morphine, to remain numb. He distances himself from people and from himself continuously, both consciously and subconsciously. This results in his social anxiety, which prevents him from establishing and maintaining friendships, even with those who have been part of his life for a long time. It manifests in his forgetfulness of long portions of his life. It shows in his complete hatred for society, which is less directed at any individual person than it is at the idea of society as a whole. 

It is because of his hatred for society that Elliot, unable to confront his inner chaos, seeks to inflict that chaos on the outside world. This is a direct portrayal of how disintegration leads us to outbursts of anger. Unable to bear the weight of our own suffering, we try to draw others into it. When our need for connection, to be understood, accepted, and supported is unfulfilled, we become destructive. This destruction often causes even more pain and chaos. It can drive those we love much farther away from us, leading us further into our loneliness, misery, and discord. We

Frequent outbursts of anger can become a part of us; these behavioral patterns become so ingrained that they become part of our identity. This is a significant aspect of Elliot's journey in Mr. Robot. Descending into chaos, witnessing the ripple of a catastrophic domino effect from his actions, he is thrown into things far from his mind, beyond his control. Bringing forth the darkness, the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas says: If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. 

Part IV: Transformation. Bringing this darkness out from within Elliot is ultimately what allows him to change. It is often when we see our internal chaos reflected in the external world that we are able to recognize it. After inflicting pain on others, we are capable of seeing it within ourselves. Awareness is a necessary first step in any growth journey, and sometimes awareness requires us to reach a dark and miserable place. But more importantly, it almost always requires the wisdom and care of other people. It is only through the perspectives of Krista, Darlene, and even his enemies that Elliot is able to uncover the trauma at the root of his disorders. It is the mutual care and love for, and in him, that keeps him going despite sadness and hopelessness. It brings him back from madness, from near death, from the darkest places his psyche could go

Elliot's transformation was brought about by two things: understanding and coming to terms with what is within him. The love of the other people in his life plays a crucial role. It is through the love, care, and wisdom of these individuals that Elliot achieves the most significant milestone in his internal struggle. Growth and wholeness can only come from fully seeing, understanding, and accepting what is inside us. This may be the most powerful message in the psychology of Mr. Robot. We can only reach integration through acceptance. Elliot's therapist, Krista, continually tries to communicate this to him throughout the show. Much of Elliot's journey revolves around him learning, struggling, and eventually realizing this fact. Dissociation and resistance were at the root of his psychosis, while radical acceptance was at the core of his transformation. It is only when Elliot begins to accept and work with these alienated parts of himself that he can achieve progress and growth. It is only when he learns that each part cares for him and tries to work with him that he can make peace. It is only when he sits down, talks to them, listens to them, and embraces them that he is able to succeed. This can work for any of us, learning and familiarizing ourselves with our parts by paying attention to them and seeing how they manifest in our lives. We can begin to see the patterns and habits that shape our feelings and actions. We can get to the root of our behaviors, see what drives

I encourage you to try it yourself. Start to realize which parts control your life. What appears defensively? What clings to control? What lived in fear, begging for attention and recognition? You can care for it, treat it kindly, relieve it of its stress and tension, and see what reason and purpose it has for existing. I believe you will realize that if you do this, you will find a deep peace that only comes from mending broken relationships—the return to wholeness. 

It is this capacity for release that lies at the core of healing, the ability to let go of our constant resistance, to let go of our yearning to be different from who we are. Accepting and working with who we are in this moment in its entirety. Sitting down, observing the mind like a movie, portraying all these stories and fantasies, hearts, and personalities—letting them be and watching them pass by. Without clinging to them, pushing them away, or feeding them. Welcoming them like a guesthouse. All things being and working together. In peace and acceptance. 

This is what radical integration and healing look like. Okay, that was quite a lot. Breathe. Thank you for watching Mr. Robot as Therapy. Translated by Noa Díaz Villaverde.

Mr. Robot As Therapy: Disconnection, Integration, and the Multiplicity of Self

Mr. Robot As Therapy: Disconnection, Integration, and the Multiplicity of Self