humor--it's critical" (MGM, 1983). Jack was dealing with his emotions analytically to avoid feeling anxious or concerned.
             Later that night, while at dinner with his wife Caroline, Jack says to her, "I know this sounds crazy, but I actually feel great, I don't know why, but I do. Now I'll have time to do work around the house" (MGM 1983). According to Freud, Jack would be in denial of his feelings, and heading for sublimation by re-channeling his emotional energy by doing housework. During the same conversation, the confident Jack quickly turns defensive when his wife informs him that she "put the word out" for a job. He replies, "you think your going to get a job before I do? Let's make a bet, let's make a bet I get a job before you do--100 to 1 doll face--give me a dollar" (MGM, 1983). Jack then proceeds to involve his children by asking them to hold on to the money, and his wife makes a remark that he isn't healthy. Jack's defensive attitude is caused by the mechanism of projection in which he is placing his hostile feelings onto his wife, and also attempts to displace them by creating the bet. Jack continues these defenses when his wife does get a job before him by trying to get her to take the money from the bet, but she refuses.
             The morning when Jack's wife is getting ready to leave for her new job, Jack acts like he will be "perfectly fine" without her help with the kids, until she leaves. Jack had created a reaction formation and pretended to be happy, relaxed, and comfortable with staying home when really he was angry, nervous, and possibly jealous of his wife.
             In the next scene, Caroline's new boss was picking her up at home in a limo. When Jack sees her boss dressed in a suit, he runs away to change from his bathrobe into work clothes. The boss enters the home, and Jack walks in with an intimidating look on his face with a chain...