John Wick, DC Barker, Wilhelm Reich
Breaking out of the Tic Matrix
Inspired by Vincent Lê’s recent Substack article on John Wick, I felt to embark on my own brief piece of writing, tying in some of the psychological angles of this fascinating topic.
Keanu Reeve’s John Wick, like Willis’ and Carradine’s characters before him, represents the essence of the inherent revenge fantasies of the Endurer character from Reichian psychology. The Endurer had their natural libidinal energy bound up within them as a result of heavy-handed parenting aged around two. Their nervous system understood that to really express themselves could lead to ostracism and so it reacted by gating off outgoing expression, leaving them terrified of confronting authority and fearful of ever getting really angry.
As the decades pass by, a combination of avoidant daily routines and muscular armouring serves to imprison them permanently in unfulfilling lives of social conformity, where they grumble away but never dare to speak up.
This behavioural and physical suppression of energy might perhaps be called “Barker Gating,” after the hyperstitional character created by the CCRU. DC Barker, the so-called “teacher of the tic matrix,” is an anthropomorphic representation of the repression of energy and emotion first articulated by Wilhelm Reich in the 1930s. Barker, a brilliant but deranged psychologist, operates on the fringes of social reality, and is possibly modelled on infamous CIA analyst Dr Jolyon “Jolly” West, renowned for his work on MK Ultra.
By gating off libidinal energy in the vast majority of living humans, through the imposition of certain cultural practices especially around child-rearing, society can be rendered manageable, and the masses can be subtly driven to undertake specific work. This channeling of libidinal energy through systematic cultural conditioning has driven human development for aeons and the ethnic groups that have done it most effectively have shown themselves dominant thus far in global cultural development.
All that gated libidinal fire nevertheless makes itself known by filling the minds of the many with fantasies of ultimate payback, of breaking out of the box and running wild, doing all the things their nervous system won’t allow them to do.
The key to unlocking all that suppressed power is social license - a situation where ultimate force is not only justified, but actually necessary. Willis’ cop in Die Hard had his spouse captured. Carradine’s humble immigrant would bear all sorts of slights until the rednecks started on the poor chinaman in the corner. Wick’s dog was killed by Russian mafiosi.
These events served to break the social protocols that surround extreme violence, allowing decades of bound-up libidinal energy to once again begin to flow. And, as Lê points out, Wick is significant in this regard in that, once a horde of bad guys have been brutally dealt with, still the debt is not paid. He will continue the slaughter, presumably until he is no more. This aspect of the Wick mythos once again mimics the reality of being freed from Barker Gating. Vasoconstricted blood vessels, armoured body fascia and deep ruts of daily routine, once liberated, will not return to being bound up in social protocols or simply channelled in service of global capitalism to benefit the few.
Freedom is permanent.