Jimmy Robson - K-Pax

Kevin Spacey's movie "K-Pax" offers some interesting insight to the inside of the human psyche. Being one who believes in intelligent design, it seems to me that this state of psychosis that Prot exhibits is a brilliant way to cope with a crippling tragedy. Without this coping mechanism, Robert Porter would have to spend the rest of his life haunted by the image of the gruesome scene of his murdered wife and child, as well as the fact that he killed their murderer. It would be impossible for the human mind and human emotions to be able to process that kind of shock and pain. If it were not for this mental shift, Porter almost certainly would have killed himself to escape the haunting imagery. Instead, his mind invents another identity that transports him away from the pain, thus creating Prot from the planet K-Pax. The fascinating thing about it is the amount of detail his mind goes into to help him explain his existence and his home planet. He is able to answer with perfect logic every question that Mark poses to him. When Mark brings in the astrologist to disprove the possibility of the existence of the planet K-Pax, Prot offers a perfect astrological explanation to the orbit of K-Pax that the astronomists had never thought of before. After thinking about it, I realized that any hole in the logic of Prot's existence would tear the whole facade down, plunging Porter back into the reality of his tragedy. While I do feel that reality is better than fantasy, in the circumstance of awful tragedy, this alternate reality seems much better than the alternative of hysteria and possible suicide.