This is going to be divided into 4 parts: I will summarise the movie, break down three key scenes, and provide an overall analysis of the core themes, adding my final conclusion at the end.

I] SUMMARY

The movie starts with the gallery opening of one of the two main characters: Susan, a successful but emotionally distant art gallery owner living in Los Angeles. She's wealthy, elegant, and seems to have it all, but she feels deeply unfulfilled.

After the gallery opening, Susan returns home to her sleek, modern house, where her distant relationship with her husband (Hutton) becomes evident.

Soon after, Susan receives a manuscript titled Nocturnal Animals from her ex-husband, Edward Sheffield. Along with the manuscript is a note saying he dedicated it to her.

Hutton comes into the Kitchen and queries about the novel, Edward, Susan’s first husband, whom he did not even know was a writer. Susan is emotionally moved in the scene. When Hutton suggests they have not spoken in 20 years, she corrects him, saying it was 19, confirming by the same token that she remembers the years they parted and his emotional relevance still to this day.

This contrasts with Hutton: he is a wealthy, handsome businessman who is distant and often absent, both physically and emotionally. Their marriage appears cold and strained, lacking real intimacy. Hutton represents Susan's life — one of comfort and status, but ultimately shallow and unfulfilling.

Interestingly enough, she confirmed that she tried to contact Edward a few years back, but he hung up on her. Yet, the intrigue is that he dedicated the manuscript to her.

Susan then challenged Hutton about why he did not come to the gallery opening. She was disappointed he did not even bother, as it would have taken 15 minutes of his time despite his busy schedule. She also seeks to understand why he did not come to bed the night before, to which he replied he did not want to wake her. This alludes to potential cheating, but it is too early to confirm.

She suggests a romantic getaway, which he declines because he supposedly has to close a deal. The couple is struggling with money, potentially going broke despite their lavish lifestyle.

The next scene shows the couple having dinner with friends and other socialites. Susan had already confided to one of her friends the struggles she was going through in her marriage and with the finances; we then learned that she leaked it to her husband, Carlos. Susan regrets doing so, as keeping appearances is key in that world, despite being told that she is “too hard on herself” by her friend.

Susan asks her how she does it, to which she replies she is totally cool being with a gay husband: “It is not such a bad thing, we are best friends, we love each other completely, I am the certainly the only woman in his his life, and that lasts longer than lust, doesn’t it”.

This is an excellent insight from a decade ago, where it is now commonplace to hear wives talk about their husbands as best friends in their emasculation efforts to turn masculinity into gay poodles.

Susan then confirmed that she and Hutton never had that, and they wanted different things. She does not respond to her friend’s question whether she still loves Hutton (she never did), to which she does not reply, before her husband leaves for that business deal.

Susan is then seated next to Carlos, who compliments her gallery opening greatly despite her brushing it off, saying it was junk. He agrees with her and reframes it as the tales of our times.

There is this insightful exchange:

Carlos: “No one really likes what they do.”

Susan: “Then why do we do it?”

Carlos: “Because we are driven. Maybe a bit insecure. We get into things when we are young because we think they mean something.”

Susan: “Then we find out that they don’t.”

Carlos: “Enjoy the absurdity of this world. It is a lot less painful. And believe me, our world is a lot less painful than the real world.”

Susan then goes back to her house and starts reading the manuscript sent by Edward:

Tony Hastings drives through a remote desert highway late at night with his wife, Laura, and teenage daughter, India. They’re suddenly approached and harassed by a car full of aggressive young men, including the unsettling and dangerous Ray Marcus.

The encounter escalates when the men force Tony’s car off the road, block them in, and begin taunting and manipulating them. Ray and his accomplices, Lou and Turk, pretend to offer help, but it quickly becomes clear they’re playing a psychological game.

They separate Tony from his family, sending him off in one car while Ray and the others drive away with Laura and India. Tony is abandoned in the desert, helpless and panicked, before he finally reaches a remote farmhouse to call for help.

After the traumatic desert incident, Tony contacts the local police, and Detective Bobby Andes, a rugged, no-nonsense officer, takes up the case.

Andes is sympathetic and immediately suspects foul play. They eventually discover the bodies of Laura and India, brutally murdered and abandoned in a desolate shack. The grief and guilt Tony feels are overwhelming — he’s shattered, haunted by his inability to protect his family.

This scene is filled with raw tension, fear, and helplessness and marks the start of Tony’s emotional and psychological unraveling. It's also when Susan realizes Edward’s story is dark and personal, showing he did not heed her previous advice of not making it about the author.

We then have a flashback to how Edward and Susan originally met. After reading the harrowing first section of the manuscript, Susan is visibly disturbed, which triggers a flashback to her younger days with Edward, back when they were still married.

This scene shows a softer, more idealistic version of both characters. Edward is warm, creative, and deeply in love with Susan. He speaks passionately about his writing, and she initially supports him.

There are two key scenes, which will be broken down below: the dinner scene between Edward and Susan and the scene between Susan and her mom.

We then get Susan in real time writing to Edward with the following message before going back to the manuscript:

The novel continues, showing Tony’s transformation. With the help of Detective Andes, they track down Ray Marcus, the man responsible for the brutal attack on Tony’s family. Andes, who is terminally ill and no longer bound by legal constraints, becomes more aggressive in his pursuit of justice.

Eventually, Tony and Andes capture Ray, and in a tense, emotionally charged confrontation, Tony kills Ray, but not before being injured himself. After the act of vengeance, Tony stumbles away, alone, wounded, and emotionally drained. He eventually collapses — his fate ambiguous, symbolizing the cost of revenge and the hollowness that can follow it.

We also get a couple of interesting flashbacks, one of which is the breakup between Edward and Susan after Susan drops her support for Edward’s writing, the former will be broken down.

Susan also remembers when she went to planned parenthood with Hutton to abort Edward’s baby, for Edward to witness it in the background whilst getting rained on.

The end scene shows Susan going to their original restaurant to meet Edward 19 years later, and eventually being stood up by him.

II] SCENES BREAKDOWN

A) The First Date Restaurant Scene

The meeting is a pure product of serendipity, where the way the meet-up happens carries weight in the relationship narrative.

While in the restaurant, they look intensely at each other, and the tension can be felt, as they clearly have an attraction.

Susan admits to Edward that he was her gay brother's first crush, who also happened to be Edward’s best friend. This lowkey underlines the feminine and sensitive character of the main male character of the movie.

His reaction was that of empathy, showing his comfort behind the fact that another male was attracted to him, which Susan contrasts with most stereotypical male archetypes who would have freaked out, especially in the conservative South, which Texas represent.

There is then the undermining from Susan of her parents criticising of being bigoted for not accepting Cooper for being gay. Edward's taking the defence of them shows empathy and his emotional sensitivity in the matter, also due to the mother’s support during his father’s death.

Susan's “really” is one of surprise, and it can be inferred that she did not expect it because his consideration towards her parents may not be shared.

Another key comment from Susan is that parents see a reflection of themselves in their children. Edwards champions this when he states the similarities between Susan and her mom’s eyes, demonstrating his higher natural sensitivity (“from when I was a little boy”) to finer details and what it can be the name of.

Despite Susan’s compliment that her eyes are beautiful, she just warns him not to compare him to her mom. She is still in that rebellious phase of separating herself from the identity her upbringing de facto associates with her, and she does not want to end up like her parents.

Another theme behind the deterministic aspect of the path people take, already pre-shaped based upon their personality, genetic, or social background, comes from the subject of keeping appearances and the impostor syndrome that Susan feels.

When she admits she never felt “perfect” as she was portraying herself to be, she brings her authenticity, which Edward saw as “perfect.” True internal beauty shows in the admission of our flaws and the accepting from others of them. Edward understood this through his innate intuition, which drew him to her even more besides her “beautiful eyes.”

She is being seduced and is not willing to take the compliment. Edward then challenges Susan to explain why she has given up on being an Artist. This encompasses her internal identity struggle and her unwillingness to go the whole way with her rebellion from what her parents expect of her. Edward is the enabler because he believes in himself and his craft and wants Susan to do the same. He follows his path to act upon her desire to emancipate herself from her parents' influence fully instead of keeping appearances and letting her express her true self.

She eventually welcomes his support and realises that he is what she needs to develop herself further and finally admits that she had always fancied him.

This scene gives the perfect background image of where Susan is coming from:

She’s intelligent, sensitive, and aware of the world’s harsher realities. She’s already been taught that emotional idealism is a liability, especially for a woman from her background.

So even as she talks with Edward, you can feel the tug-of-war happening inside her:

One side wants to believe in love and art and to stay with this kind, vulnerable man.

The other side is whispering: he’s not strong enough, you’ll resent him, you want more stability, not struggle.

This is determinism at work — not fate as in magic, but the gradual erosion of authenticity by pressure, upbringing, and fear.

B) The Mother And Susan

She lets her mother know that she is moving back to Texas, to which her mother is not happy as she learns she is going with Edward. Despite the family knowing him very well, she disapproves of her choice: “Where is this going to go?”.

You can tell from her attire, hair, and elocution that Anne, Susan’s mom, comes from the Texan high society. While she tries to gaslight her daughter, Susan calls her out, bolstered in her faith thanks to Edward's work in the background of choosing the authenticity route and emotional sincerity rather than going for the stale taste of security through social conventions and family duty.

Despite Edward’s appreciation of Susan’s mom, she emasculates him, calling him sweet and too weak, in contrast to Susan, who is strong-willed, before indirectly castigating him as below Susan.

Susan distinguishes between sensitive and weak and then categorises her mom as lacking any among the other family members outside of Cooper.

This is where her mom is future pacing how her seeking of comfort will trump her emotional idealism, priming her towards the choice of reason, which she expects Edwards won’t be able to meet. She calls him a brokey, and all of the other euphemisms the average post-wall broad looking for financial security put forward: ambition, driven character. This is where the young and idealistic Susan does not mind, as the beauty of the idea of love trumps the reality of what adulthood young couples will have to confront.

Susan’s mom does not buy into Edward's “different” kind of strength, which her daughter supports. She also admits that he is actually stronger than her in many ways. This is where Susan brings forward the self-belief he has, but also something her parents have not fostered in her, the belief and confidence she has what it takes. This is not something to underscore, as people lacking self-belief value those who believe in them.

Despite being insensitive, her mom has experience and is willing to bet it will peter out but begs Susan not to marry him. Her mom shows Susan a side she has never shown before, demonstrating to her what she never would have thought her mom, by calling Edward a “romantic.” The subtext is, “I was like you before, but you have never seen that part of me.” This emphasises that she kept her appearance so good throughout the years that it fooled Susan.

Susan’s mom warns her not to do it because Edward is fragile. It will fail and only hurt him in the end. She then follows up:

”The things that you love about him now are those you will hate in a few years.”

Many divorced men will tell you how much veracity there is in that statement.

She then pokes at her by stating that they are alike, only emphasising the duplicity behind her character and how she has shielded her true identity from the outside world through her inauthenticity.

This ties in with the comment Edward made on the date of how Susan and her mom have the same eyes, which are cold yet beautiful. Edward already felt and foresaw the similarities but did not want to conclude that doom would be the conclusion of their union, ignoring the deterministic nature of the individuals at play.

There are 4 main themes in that scene:

1. Emotional Determinism

“We all eventually turn into our mothers.” - Anne

This is more than just a warning — it’s a statement about emotional inevitability, about how the values and fears we grow up with shape us even when we think we’re rebelling against them.

Susan sees herself as different from her mother—more sensitive and independent. But Anne, composed and ruthless in her delivery, sees the writing on the wall: Susan is already drifting toward the same compromises.

This scene powerfully advocates emotional determinism, suggesting that we will repeat the same patterns we inherited unless we actively fight it.

2. Identity And Self-Deception

Like her mom, she prioritizes control, structure, and emotional distance.

Like her mom, she ends up in a loveless marriage built on social compatibility.

Like her mom, she looks back regretfully, understanding the cost too late.

This conversation becomes a mirror that reflects not who Susan is now, but who she’s becoming.

3. Fear Of Vulnerability

Edward represents emotional risk—loving him means embracing uncertainty and vulnerability. Anne sees that and immediately shuts it down. She’s the voice of fear disguised as wisdom, convincing Susan that it’s not safe to follow her heart.

Susan inherited this fear of emotional exposure, so she loses what matters most to her.

This scene functions like a quiet prophecy. It’s the moment we realize that Susan's downfall isn't just circumstantial — it's deeply rooted in her upbringing. Anne isn’t a villain, per se — she’s just someone who chose safety over soul and is passing that philosophy down.

4. Authenticity vs Comformity

Anne criticizes Edward as being weak, idealistic, and impractical — and warns Susan that a man like him will not be able to provide the life she’s meant to have. In Anne’s world, success is measured by status, money, control, and social image, not emotional connection or artistic expression.

This is the clearest moment where Susan is faced with a binary choice:

Choose authenticity (with Edward, and possibly struggle)

Choose conformity (and live in comfort, but possibly regret)

Anne’s message is harsh but clear: “You’re not the kind of woman who marries a man like Edward”. It plants a seed of doubt that later grows into Susan’s decision to abandon him, ultimately defining the rest of her life.

C) The Breakup

After Anne, Susan’s mom, planted the seeds in her daughter’s mind, and Edward, still in a similar situation to which they started the relationship, she realises, as her mom predicted, that the bohemian lifestyle will not be enough for her.

What she does here is recraft the narrative to suit her best. She lives in the real world now, which means they are no longer compatible. Compatibility is contingent on her emotional state, which makes any path to a sustainable future wonky. She assumes then that the financial safety and structure will provide her with that peace of mind, where the uncertainty and fragility of her situation are proving too heavy to bear despite her love for Edward.

She then admits that she is not the person he wants her to be and admits defeat to confirm Anne’s prophecy. She then deceives herself by saying she is not scared, but Edward sees through it and tries to reassure her before she gives the standard four-word knockout: “I am not happy”.

She then tries to smoothen the blow:

”You are so wonderful and sensitive and romantic” where he cuts her and call her bullshit as he sees Anne speaking through her by calling himself “weak” which she defends herself from saying.

Edward, understanding what is going on, realises that for him to really come to closure, he asks her the following:

”Do you love me?” is a question she does not want to answer before finally confirming that she still does, to eventually be called out from metaphorically running away. This is where Edward gives this ominous warning, which will carry a powerful message throughout the movie, entertaining her later yearnings:

“When you love someone, you work it out; you don’t just throw it away. You must be careful with it; you might never get it again.”

This scene will resonate with many men, as there comes a point in life when you don’t meet her requirements for long-term needs, and she will gradually switch up to start not liking you as much because of it.

This goes back to Anne’s words:

”The things that you love about him now are those you will hate in a few years.”

With the help of her family and or friends, she will start convincing herself that who you are is rubbish to her. Your sensitivity she loved becomes weakness, your ambition becomes aspiration. And your couple becomes trouble.

She will build up that resentment to eventually break it down to you.

Despite Susan’s rationalising, she still loves Edward. Even though she says all of the negative stuff, she consciously wants him to fight it, which he does. But unconsciously, it eventually only confirms her choice.

This breakup scene is about choosing fear over love, silence over trust, security over passion, and ultimately losing your soul to gain the world.

This is when two people who once loved each other fail to bridge the emotional gap. Edward is still emotionally present, trying to hold onto their relationship and understand what’s changed. Susan, meanwhile, has already emotionally detached — her expression, tone, and words are calculated and distant.

Susan is abandoning her authentic self—the one who once believed in emotion, vulnerability, and art. In choosing security and image, she begins betraying who she once was.

The breakup is less about incompatibility and more about Susan breaking from her own emotional truth.

This is where we see the consequences of the earlier mother-daughter scene come to life. Her mother’s influence—the fear of instability, weakness, and emotional exposure—is now fully in control.

Susan believes she’s making a rational, adult decision. However, it is emotionally pre-programmed — a product of years of subtle conditioning. Her breakup with Edward feels inevitable, and she is not empowered.

This scene marks when the bridge between Susan and Edward collapses permanently. Neither of them realizes at that moment how final this will be. This is very much like in real life, where breakups often occur out of nowhere from at least one of the participants, but that lack of foresight creates the limerence born out of the lack of closure.

The irony is that this isn’t some catastrophic fight. It’s quiet. Controlled. Polite. And that makes it more painful — the kind of breakup where everything meaningful dies in silence.

The emotional core here is about the pain of losing something real before you know its value and being unable to get it back.

This breakup scene also foreshadows Edward’s novel, Nocturnal Animals. Susan’s betrayal — especially what she does afterward (which we later learn includes an abortion and never telling him) — becomes the emotional engine of Tony’s revenge story in the manuscript.

Her emotional abandonment becomes, metaphorically, the murder of Edward’s emotional life — just as Tony loses his wife and daughter in the novel.

The tragedy here isn’t anger — it’s the coldness of indifference.
It’s a moment where the two lives pivot. Edward goes inward and eventually turns his pain into art, while Susan goes outward, climbing into a shell of success that ultimately leaves her empty.

III] THE ANALYSIS

A) The Parallels Between The Manuscript and Real Life

In the previous chapter we broke down the flashbacks, but to completely address the movie and the underlying message we have to link what happened between the novel from Edward and his Emotional Journey.

Nocturnal Animals represents is Edward’s nickname for Susan she she is someone who makes hurtful choices in the darkness of self-interest whilst also addressing the animalistic behaviour of the protagonists, involving rape, murder and revenge.

Tony who is the representation of Edward dreaming of a peaceful family life with Susan which is represented by Laura and India going on a trip which is the life Edward hoped for, simple, loving, full of potential. When he gets run off the road by Ray and his gang, it is Susan’s affair and emotional betrayal. The violence is symbolic of Susan’s choice crashing into Edward’s dreams.

When Tony hopelessly watches wife and daughter taken, it represents Edward’s powerlessness as Susan ends their relationship and aborts. his child. He feels emasculated, unable to protect the “family” he wanted. Laura and India being raped and murdered is the representation of her monkey branching with Hutton who assisted in the murdering of his child and the alleged cheating that occurred. That also emphasises how Edward had his emotional cord and family future destroyed.

Tony is consumed with guilt which represents his years of suffering in silence, unable to move on for years, being weak for not having fought harder, over being too passive. This is when he meets detective Andes who represents the manuscript as a tool for revenge but also his inner sense of justice system, where closure happens through the weapons of the word from a personal cleansing perspective but in the bigger scheme of hurting the person who was responsible for his emotional shut down.

The tracking down of Lou and Ray by Tony is when Edward confronts his demons in the novel, Ray represents Hutton and Lou is Susan’s complicit role, and even though Tony kills Ray he dies in the process. He gains his emotional revenge, but revenge comes at a cost, the one of emotional shut down. It is the “death” of the old Edward, where despite having grown in the experience he loses himself. Tony dying alone is Edward telling her that he is on his own and is the foreshadowing of not wanting or needing her anymore, which eventually translates in him not attending the date they set up at that restaurant which is the ending scene.

Edward gained the closure but not the reconciliation which he did not need from Susan, he let her had a test of her own medicine he felt 19 years ago. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Susan finally understands her loss so decided to make up for lost time thinking it is not too late until she reads Edwards final message: You destroyed me and you will live with that regret which is the underlying message behind the silence she feels whilst sitting on her own in that restaurant.

B) The Surface Level Lesson From Nocturnal Animals

That Ending Scene has Susan dressed carefully, waiting for Edward at a top end venue, she is alone, vulnerable, maybe even hopeful, and while she waits, but Edward never comes. This can be looped back to when she previously exchanged Edward for Hutton thinking she can do the same realising the mistake she made not having listened to her first husband's warning in the breakup scene.

The lessons Edward learned from Susan is that love without strength and self-respect leads to destruction, while blind romanticism isn’t enough, being passive in the face of betrayal or emotional abuse is a form of self-erasure. He learned that being “too soft” or “too forgiving” left him devastated. He had to rebuild himself, and he did, but not in the way she imagined.

By not showing up Edward showed he took back control and not to be used emotionally again, after years of silence this is mic drop. She gives Susan a taste of what he felt whilst showing growth, not being the emotionally fragile artist craving for her validation, he does not need her anymore.

The irony of the situation is that now that Edward became strong he does not need her anymore whilst she misses him. The staleness of her marriage to the unfaithful Hutton is another loop back to how she behaved with Edward back 19 years ago, what goes around comes back around.

Letting go was his best revenge, as the powerful words is the silence surrounding her, yet revenge can be the most cathartic catalyst in the production of art which only blossoms through the transfusion of emotions, a choice Edward made early on and kept with until he finished his production for him to disappear physically and spiritually after his work was done.

C) Reason vs Emotion

Susan chose reason because stability, social standing, wealth and predictability was eventually what she was conditioned to choose. Edward lived by emotion, he believed in love, art, vulnerability, and the creative unknown. In choosing reason, Susan avoided the potential chaos of the struggling artist’s life but she also abandoned authentic emotional depth, with love that’s raw, imperfect, but real.

Even though Hutton was the perfect match on paper, handsome, wealthy, dashing, there was never anything real, just some empty Ken toy.

The life of reason will look as alluring from the outside to better hide the emptiness from within, a perfect analogy for the surface level strength of avoidance from the outside appearance to cover-up the deep lying insecurity of feeling exposed from within.

The pain which is avoided is preferred to the passion that is missed as emotional depth requires risk. To feel deeply is to be willing to get hurt. As in real life regrets only happens when it is too late, Susan chose to follow the safe path to become as hollow as the environment she decided to integrate.

Reason is not bad but reason without emotion leads to emptiness, where emotion without strength leads to destruction, the balance is where one can learn to protect his heart without closing it for Edward, but for Susan to learn to limit how much protecting her image can cost her her soul.

The Bigger Lesson is that you can’t feel deeply if you don’t risk deeply. If one is only playing it safe, whether it is emotionally, creatively, relationally, they will never experience the full spectrum of being human. Edward suffered because he felt, Susan suffered because she did not - until it was too late.

D) The Cleansing Effect Of Revenge

Revenge does not heal, it reveals. It does not restore as Edward did not get back with Susan, it only makes the other person feel what you felt. Revenge is the sublimation of the being through elevation from turning pain into a masterpiece. Art becomes his weapon, silence his power.

The best revenge is becoming untouchable, everything is in the subtext, and whilst it is the indirect transfer from pain to hurt, it is also the lagged unloading onto other of the bad debt they incurred which gets paid with interest. The real return is in the processing of the pain for it to be singled out and addressed.

E) The Subsurface Lesson from Nocturnal Animals

This is the most misunderstood but powerful theme of the movie where emotionality is not weakness - it is strength.

Edward was being told “you are too emotional”, “you are too sensitive”, “you are not strong enough”, even by Susan, the person he loved the most, yet she saw his emotional depth not as beauty but as fragility. So he tried to be what she wanted and it destroyed him.

Being emotional does not make you weak. It means you care. Edward felt and he suffered, but from that suffering he created something beautiful, something honest, something lasting, meanwhile those who were too strong too feel - Susan and Hutton- ended up alone, cold and haunted.

The so-called strong choose the choice of safety behind the big walls of high society sheltered from the struggles normal people go through, something Carlos reminded Susan at the beginning of the movie. Enjoy the absurdity of the world, because there is no meaning to what you do, that you must laugh at what is around you to make it palatable. The part that is left unsaid is that if you don’t, the introspection will introduce you to despair if not despondency.

IV] Conclusion

There is this idea that there is one single idea of being strong, as if men are homogenous in their personality, when we have our difference. Trying to go against our nature or our conditioning is thinking we can beat the force of the environment when it is not genetically constrained limitations. It is crucial to play to our strengths. Edward was never going to be the stereotypical meathead who would be impulsive with a low EQ, never the less his words hurts deeper than any uppercuts, and his craftiness, patience, vindictiveness stood the test of time, leaving Susan feeling the same level of powerlessness he felt in the past. This is where smart women use their femininity to gain the most leverage because it is their competitive advantage, when low frequency ones try to emulate the men they are not, only creating resentment in the process with others and cognitive dissonance within themselves.

The idea that emotionality is weakness is adopted by one layered people not realising that empathy can be weaponised through a hurtful angle the individuals not conscious of it are only the most vulnerable to it. Eventually, the shield of being closed off when it is to avoid being hurt is one of actual fear rather than strength. Where running away is the best smokescreen from addressing accountability in our misery, despondency and fostering even more mistrust in others if not self-destruction like Edward suffered, and missed opportunity Susan eventually realised 20 years later.

More importantly, it is not to say reason is wrong, had Susan played into Edward’s tune and staid the course with him, she would have not been happy either despite being in love, she would have most likely fell out of it while yearning for what she may have potentially missed out with Hutton. Edward would not have produced his masterpiece because pain is the best source of inspiration and growth but each growth is not equal, and some may have a pyrrhic victory, as the emotional shut down of Edward proved.

There is a certain level of emotional availability or willingness to open up available for both women and men, but it disappears when they have been hurt in the past, they lose the capacity of opening up again based on the extent or number of times when they were betrayed, abused or suffered identity loss. It is not that they are using defence mechanism against doing so, it is that their love to give bank has been depleted, and at best, through therapy, they can restore some portion of it like some rusty generator, but it is a pale version of what it originally was. Otherwise, numbness and self-preservation takes precedence over humanity, where the hollowifcation of the individuals acts equally as a self preservation mechanism as the cementing of their emotional bankruptcy, prompted by fearful individuals portrayed as strong when they were at best lacking self-awarenes, at worst purposely repressing their vulnerability to make everyone meet them at their rock bottom, the level at which one is cooked.

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