Mumford Reflection

Drawing a distinct line between right and wrong, or good and bad, is not always an easy task. Most people would agree that lying, murdering, and stealing are all very wrong indeed. Coincidently though, most people often would say they either have done/or would do one of the following things: tell a white lie to spare someone’s feeling, kill someone out of self-defense, or use someone else’s idea without giving them credit. Since there are exceptions to these “bad” actions, does that truly make them bad, or is it all a matter of perspective? From what I have experienced, the action isn’t quite as important as the intentions behind that action. In the motion picture Mumford, a man poses as a psychologist, and tries to solve his patient 's’ problems

Our sense of accomplishment plays very heavily into our self-esteem. When Mumford was explaining his past, and why he was so desperate for a change, he very clearly stated how much he disliked who he was. He was unhappy with his law enforcement job after being a leading cause in a man’s suicide and when he realized that he was a dirty, cocaine addict whose life had no purpose. His feeling of lack of accomplishment was a major reason that I believe he chose to impersonate a psychologist. When he helped these people with their personal issues he felt like he was accomplishing something, and he also gave his patient’s a chance to feel like they were accomplishing something by overcoming these roadblocks in their lives. The ironic thing about his “accomplishment” was that he had to do something dishonorable to achieve it. He had to lie to everyone every day in order to remain undiscovered. This really meant that he was taking one step forward and one step backward every day. He would do something to better himself by helping his patients, but turn around and soil his accomplishment by lying about it. Therefore, even though he was trying to do something good, he never actually started feeling better about himself because he kept lying to and deceiving the people he was trying to

Due to the fact that Mumford was trying to do the right thing, the reveal of his identity was a relief versus an outrage. When he was talking about his past to Skip, one of his former clients, they made it a comic relief instead of a big dramatic scene. If Mumford had impersonated a psychologist just to make good money and didn’t really care too much about his clients on a personal level, we would have thought that Mumford was a monster versus a troubled man with a shameful past who is trying to improve the quality of his life. The perspective you have on the situation can make a substantial difference in how it turns out. If you look at good and bad as being black and white, then you would say that Mumford was a lying, scheming impostor. On the other side of the spectrum, if you can see that he had good intentions and respect that about him, then you will view Mumford as a man trying to do the right thing that just happened to go about it in the wrong manner. If I had been one of Dr. Mumford’s patients, I think I would have given Mumford the benefit of the doubt for helping me and coming clean about his double