Supernatural psychological thriller

M. Night Shyamalan

USA, 1999

In this story, many traumas are mentioned:
The psychopath who shoots the child psychologist to death and then himself.
The dead child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, who doesn't want to recognize his death.
The patient of the child psychologist, Cole, a child who can see the dead.
A father whose daughter had to die painfully and realizing that she was poisoned.
The dead daughter who can't understand the cruelty of her dying.
And many other traumatizing events.

However, the most obvious and most significant of all the traumas described is not mentioned in this list.

At the end of the story the observer learns that Malcolm Crowe died in the assassination. As a result, from the moment Malcolm begins to interact with the child Cole, anything related to this interaction can only be imaginary. It is interesting that from the moment of his death Malcolm only communicates and can communicate with Cole, and remains invisible to everyone else. However, during light sleep, Anna makes the experience of spiritual communication when she lets Malcolm go.

This narrative is therefore an imaginary horror story in the world of thoughts of that person whose trauma management and thus experienced fairy tale is treated in this story. And this person is the grieving widow Anna Crowe, who cannot endure the painful loss of her great love and can hardly fall in love again and lead a normal life. – Her fate is it, what everything is about.

Her trauma processing is what we experience from the cause to the coping.

The story is decrypted by looking at it from the perspective of the grieving widow.

"My husband was murdered. He and my painful love for him are haunting in my head, and I can't live a normal life anymore. Then suddenly, this important child who can see the dead appears in my life (mind).”

In her mind, her dead husband deals with the mental problems of an imaginary child.

Now Annas conscious part of her mind is projected in trusting love with the dead husband and child psychologist Malcolm. The child in her is projected on Malcolm's imaginary patient, Cole.

"Malcolm helps Cole to understand his spiritual realm, to rescue it and to overcome. That's the salvation for Malcolm. Malcolm recognizes and accepts his death (in my mind) so that I can release without fear of guilty conscience, and live a normal life again.”

So Anna overcomes her trauma and the associated guilty conscience.

The other narratives are constructs that complete the description and explanation of trauma management.

Worth considering details:

Coles clock (from his father) doesn't work. Malcolm mentions that he lost his sense of time.

A mother murdered the daughter and so to say becomes the devil.

The protagonists do not find redemption in a spiritual faith. But they feel: If Jesus were here, he felt with us.

The child reveals his creepy secret to his loving mother (confession).

By the way: Anna celebrates her wedding day alone, hoping to revive wonderful feelings, which she does not. Therefore she is depressed. Malcolm is dead for a long time. Opposite of her sits her idea of him. And it cannot explain her the painful situation.

"The sixth sense" is the ability to intuitively or even consciously reflect and interpret these situation.