Perspective: A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view; the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed
Perception: A way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression; the neurophysiological processes, including memory, by which an organism becomes aware of and interprets external stimuli
I learned about perspective, I mean really learned about it, watching a reel-to-reel movie in a sophomore high school class called Basic Concepts.
I can’t tell you what other “basic concepts” were covered in the class. And I did not like the teacher at all. She used me as a negative example in another class. When I finished a test early, a student beside me was asking me a question, not a test question, something to do with the instructions, I think, and, not wanting to be rude, I tried to reply. The teacher accused me of cheating or helping him cheat, I don’t remember which. I just remember feeling it was grossly unfair. She didn’t give me any chance to explain. And I was a good student, not used to trouble. Then she told the story of what happened to me to another class as a precautionary tale, naming me BY NAME. I heard about it from friends in that class. The teacher seemed a rather miserable person. She wasn’t very old and could’ve been considered pretty with short Dorothy Hammil hair and perk and pointed features. But she was most often distant and disdainful in her manners to students. She suffered from allergies, I believe, her eyes often weepy, dark circles underneath them, a handkerchief in her hand. She blew her nose a lot and rarely smiled.
But despite her and her laissez-faire approach, I learned something incredibly valuable the day she showed that movie. That one class period made the whole semester with her worth it.
The old instructional film was called In the Eye of the Beholder. What I remembered is that it was the story about a woman who enters an apartment building and goes to the studio apartment of a male artist. There is some sort of arguing and then the woman leaves.
There are other residents in the apartment building: the doorman, the woman herself who entered the building, the male artist, and other witnesses. One by one, the different characters tell their version of what took place. I don’t remember all the versions, but one saw the man as a threat, violent. Another one saw the woman as the issue. I think another one explained how the couple was drunk and always a problem. There were other perspectives too.
Photo by Noom Peerapong on Unsplash
It was an epiphany for me. Sure, I already understood the concept of perspective, but this example brought it home to me how each of us, no matter how similar we are in character, have a different perspective of the world. We can see the same thing and tell a million different stories, sometimes vastly different. We are all limited by our own self-consciousnesses and experiences. We can have empathy and imagine what it might be like to walk in someone else’s shoes and this, I feel, is incredibly important to do as a human being. We need more empathy in this world!
But we can never truly know the full perspective of another person, not completely, even if they explain it to us. Who the person is, their entire family history, their entire social history, their prejudices, the circumstances of their situation, their mood, prior events of the day, who is with them in the space, what’s on their mind, all kinds of influences color a person’ perspectives of what they see.
Do you see a duck or a rabbit?
The duck-rabbit drawing was first used by American psychologist Joseph Jastrow in 1899 to make the point that perception is not only what one sees but also a mental activity.
I realized watching the movie that this was a central reason for conflict amongst people, conflicts that could never be resolved unless we agree to disagree and understand that everyone is viewing an event from their own unique perspective or perception. An event will have certain hard, objective facts: who says what, etc. But a person’s emotional truth often has nothing to do with the facts but their reaction to what they see and don’t see based on a myriad of personal factors.
We have always heard the expression that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.“ But really, everything is in the eye of the beholder. That’s what any one person‘s reality is.
My writing for this challenge would’ve stopped here, except while writing it I thought I’d sleuth online to see if by any chance I could find that short film. I’ve looked for it many times before to no avail.
Lo and behold! Someone posted it on YouTube in 2019! It was actually filmed in 1953 and stars Dick Conte and Martha Vickers. I saw it in 1980. What a trip to see it again! What do you think of the film?
Click on the image to view the old film! I’d love to hear your impression!