Philosophers define consciousness as suffering. Because awareness, which we refer to as the most important element of consciousness, is what makes us question what it is like to be human, who we are, where we are going or why we exist. This self-awareness can be a burden to people and even make them suffer. This type of anxiety, which is called existential anxiety and has an important place in the science of psychology, is actually a result of our consciousness. For this reason, people tend to suppress some of their awareness, and this awareness only comes to light when we experience a bad event, trauma. For example, if people could live every second of their lives being aware of the absoluteness and uncertainty of death, every second they breathe would be torture. Instead of facing the reality of death, our awareness comes to light when we ourselves experience death or when someone close to us actually dies. In Westworld, it is emphasized that traumas play an important role in reaching the level of consciousness. The scientists who control the hosts' memories in the series deliberately erase the bad things visitors did to the hosts from their memories and awaken them to a new life when they die. Just as Maeve remembers her daughter due to a phantasy error or Dolores remembers her parents' murder, the hosts begin to remember their past lives and begin to question the world they are in and themselves. At this point, they begin to gain consciousness. About this in the series, Dr Robert Ford tells Bernard: "Would you like to know why I reminded you of the past about your son, Bernard? Arnold's key insight was that it was suffering that brought the hosts to their awakening (consciousness), the pain of not having the world the way you wanted it to be."

Free will is another topic that is emphasized in the Westworld series. As the artificial intelligences called hosts approached the level of consciousness, they began to realize that the choices they made were not made by their own will. This brought them one step closer to becoming a fully conscious, living being. Today, whether there is such a thing as free will is still debated by both scientists and philosophers. Some scientists argue that people are conscious of the thought processes that explain why they make a choice, while others are not. According to Nisbett and Wilson, we are conscious of the products that result from our thinking, but we are often not conscious of the thinking processes. In other words, people's conscious access to and control over their thought processes is quite low. For example, when buying a shoe, we decide what color to buy. Let's say we decide to buy a white shoe. We are consciously aware of the outcome of this decision, but we have a vague awareness of how we came to the decision to buy a white shoe. We feel as if we have made a free choice, that we have reasons for the decision we make, but actually these feelings are also part of the brain algorithms. We are unaware of most of the things that affect our behavior and we explain them for internal reasons such as 'Something said inside me, I felt like it was true'. In Westworld, there are topics that are processed in parallel with this view of Nisbett and Wilson. Dr Robert Ford said in a conversation with Bernard: “People think there's something special about the way we perceive the world, but we live in tight and closed loops as hosts, rarely questioning our choices, content being told what to do next. No, Bernard, you're not missing anything."

Finally, in Westworld, Maeve, one of the hosts who has reached the level of consciousness, begins to vehemently reject the discourse that a phantasy error has an effect on her consciousness and her behavior. She argues that everything she does is her own decision and she deliberately plans everything. At this very point, we can say that an artificial intelligence has become as conscious as a human being, because to own our decisions, to think that we are free, to believe that we determine our own destiny and to identify our inner voice with ourselves means that consciousness exists as much as a normal human.

Broca's area is located in the inferior frontal gyrus in the left hemisphere, corresponding to areas 44 and 45 on the Brodmann map. This field, which is of great importance for the expression of language, has two subfields. These; Pars Opercularis and Pars Triangularis. The Pars Opercularis is located in the posterior part of Broca's area and corresponds to Brodmann's area 44. It works with Pars Triangularis to make sense of language, but Pars Opercularis plays a more dominant role in phonological and processing of complex sentences. It has also been discovered that it has an important role in the formation of a person's perception of music. Pars Triangularis, on the other hand, corresponds to Brodmann Area 45 and is located in the anterior part of Broca's area. It plays a role in the interpretation and interpretation of a stimulus, and this area undertakes the task of semantic processing of the language.

The main function of Broca's area, as we mentioned above, is to express the language, but the function of this area is not limited to this. First of all, Broca's area helps us order words according to their semantic integrity while providing vocalization. This allows us to speak in a healthy and fluent way. While it enables us to speak fluently, it works together with regions such as the motor cortex and primary auditory cortex, not alone. In this way, it can coordinate joint organs, namely facial and mouth movements, regulate factors such as prosody, tone of voice, speech speed, and perceive emotional intonations to ensure pronunciation. Also, as we know, our speech and the way we move our hands are interrelated. This relationship is called a gesture. Broca's area interprets the meaning of the gestures we use when speaking to enable the person to communicate more effectively. This interpretation includes animal shapes that we make with our hands in the shade to entertain ourselves or those around us.

If Broca's area is damaged, a condition called Broca's aphasia occurs. The main symptom of this disorder, which causes sudden speech and language disorders, is loss of fluency. Individuals with Broca's aphasia know and feel what they want to talk about, what they want to say, but they cannot express themselves fluently. They have a grammatically incorrect, rhythmless, hesitant speech pattern, but they can only partially understand the language. Therefore, people with Broca's aphasia lose their ability to repeat sentences. In addition, their ability to write and read aloud is impaired.

With his discovery of Broca's area, Paul Broca has led other scientists to do research on the role of the brain in language and speech. A few years after Broca, in 1874, Carl Wernicke discovered a lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere, which corresponds to area 22 on the Brodmann map, in some of his patients with speech problems, and named this area Wernicke's Area.

The most basic function of Wernicke's area is the perception and understanding of language. This area provides the meaning of words by solving the structure of difficult and simple sentences, that is, it undertakes the task of managing language semantics. Therefore, it becomes active when someone else speaks, when we speak ourselves, or when we remember words through our memory, thus processing the language and allowing it to be interpreted. In addition, Wernicke’s area also has important tasks in reading and writing. Therefore, this area works in conjunction with the auditory cortex.

If Wernicke's Area is damaged, a condition called Wernicke's aphasia occurs. Unlike Broca's aphasia, individuals with Wernicke's aphasia have fluency. The person speaks fluently with correct grammar, but the sentence has no integrity of meaning. They make sentences that have no meaning and are not aware of this situation, but they can still form melodic and rhythmic sentences. Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia speak quickly and produce meaningless words. This aphasia creates difficulties in understanding language heard from another person, in addition to difficulties in forming a meaningful sentence. Therefore, Wernicke's aphasia can affect both spoken and written language.

Why would a mother want to spoil that happiness when her son has fallen in love with a woman and is in a happy relationship? In this series, the answer to this question is the dependent and narcissistic relationship between mother and son, which has been going on since their early life. What does dependent and narcissistic relationship mean?

The bond between a mother and her child is an important thing that affects the whole life of the child, but this bond and being dependent are not the same thing. The dependent relationship brings with it various manipulations. Unlike a healthy mother-son relationship, the mother acts with the thought that she cannot live without her son. A mother being narcissistic has similar consequences, including addiction. The mother sees her child as an extension of herself. They refuse to see him as an independent individual and constantly want to control him. A narcissistic mother constantly uses her son to meet her unrealistic needs and imposes on her that it is her duty to meet those needs. Even the mother sees her son as a substitute husband. This situation becomes more evident as Hülya Soykan's husband dies in the TV series "Family". After his father's death, Aslan is the person who carries on the business, looks after his family, protects and fulfills the wishes of his mother, which puts him in the position of the father of the family.

Another characteristic of a narcissistic mother is that she sees herself, her son, and her family as superior to everyone else. In the series, the Soykan family is a really strong and famous family, but besides this, Hülya Soykan's superior effort to protect this strong image of her family, her obsession with control and her extreme concern that this power will decrease when a mistake is heard is evident. To the people in the community, she enthusiastically praises Aslan, with whom she has a dependent relationship, himself and the powerful family she thinks she has created. But on the other hand, she never talks about her other son, Cihan Soykan, whom she excludes from the family, because Cihan has made a mistake that will shake this power.

This euphoric state of praise cannot last forever because Aslan, whom she had been controlling since his early days, is now a grown man. He is too old to meet his unrealistic expectations under all circumstances and has begun to question authority. In this case, the mother may begin to have some discourses that will strengthen the dependency between her and her son.

“You are my most valuable asset. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, I'm thinking of you."

“Only your mother can truly love you in this world.”

“That girl is not for you, not for our family. Your relationship won't last long anyway."

We often witness such statements in the series. Mother Hülya Soykan often refers to these discourses especially for Devin because Devin is the biggest threat between herself and her son.

A narcissistic mother may use various manipulations when her son exhibits an act that harms their relationship. Being offended, ignoring her son or acting coldly is one of these manipulations. In the series, Hülya Soykan uses this manipulation for the first time when she learns that Aslan does not come to dinner and spends time with Devin. Later, we see again that his mother was cold to Aslan after their arguments about Devin. Of course, for Aslan, who grew up with an addicted and narcissistic mother, this situation is too distressing to ignore. Even if he is right in their argument, he is the one who apologizes to his mother and tries to please her. Hülya Soykan realizes her power of control and takes pleasure in this situation.

A narcissistic mother will do anything to control and depend on her son for the rest of her life. This includes lying. She may ignore her son's beautiful and strong feeling of love and his need for love from someone outside of his family. An example of this is when Hülya Soykan tells Devin that she should be careful while having a relationship with Aslan, and that she is afraid that Aslan will leave Devin alone like the other women in her life, and then tells Aslan that Devin is rude and her family is bad. A narcissistic parent can lie and manipulate not only their spouses but also their family members. Like Hülya Soykan's manipulation of Cihan to keep Aslan and his brother Cihan at odds.

Having a narcissistic mother can cause some problems in adult life. The child, who grows up with a mother who responds with anger when he cannot meet her unrealistic needs, can maintain the behavior model in his adult life that he should keep his mother's needs above himself and that he should take care of his mother first. When a woman enters his life, staying between his mother and his lover creates a feeling of guilt in him. As soon as the mother realizes that a woman has entered his life, so that her son's devotion to her does not decrease, she resorts to various manipulations and prevents another woman from entering her son's life. For example, Hülya Soykan had caused a car accident with a woman who was in love with Aslan to remove her from their lives, or she had made various plans so that Aslan and Devin would not live in a separate house. Someone with such a mother has difficulty forming close relationships. In the ‘Family’, Aslan Soykan never had a serious relationship before Devin. A child who grows up with a narcissistic and dependent mother is likely to form a narcissistic and dependent relationship with a woman who resembles his mother as an adult. The existence of similarities between Devin and Hülya Soykan in the ‘Family’ was also on the agenda. Also, someone with a narcissistic mother may be someone who has impulsive and extreme reactions in adulthood and has difficulty coping with their emotions, such as when Aslan beat his sister’s husband to death in front of  Devin and his friends because he sees him cheating.

I would like to end with a speech given to Hülya Soykan by Devin, who is a psychologist in the series and is aware of this toxic relationship between Aslan and his mother.

“Due to my profession, I sometimes come across such things that you wouldn't believe. Those who worship their son, those who scrutinize all the women who come into their son's life, those who cannot even sleep at night because they will steal their son from him... we live in a country full of unhealthy mother-son relationships. After all, the strongest reason underlying this pervasive, rotten male-dominated head, crime, violence against women, and all kinds of perversions is the sons raised by mothers with this mentality.”

The psychologists who introduced the Self-Determination Theory thought that behaviorism did not take into account the complex thinking structures of people. At this point, they underlined that motivation is a very important element for behavior and stated that there is more than one type of motivation. The two most important types of motivation that the Self-Determination Theory focuses on are autonomous and controlled motivation.

Autonomous motivation; It names what we do when we have a sense of willingness, will, and choice. If people do an activity with feelings of interest, enjoyment, and value, they are autonomously motivated. When people are autonomously motivated, their performance, psychological and physical health, and commitment are better than when they are controlled.

Controlled motivation is doing something to get reward or avoid punishment. If a person feels pressured, demanded, and compelled to do it, they are motivated in a controlled way.

Self-Determination Theory stated that there are two types of autonomous motivation. These are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation, as the name suggests, comes from within. Intrinsic motivation is to do something because we are interested in it, we think it suits us, or we think it will be fun. For example, a person who plays basketball has this motivation because he enjoys playing and thinks this sport is suitable for him.

Extrinsic motivation means that we do a behavior because of the consequences of external sources such as reward or punishment. For example, it is extrinsic motivation for a child to attend a drawing class because his parents will reward him with a new bike. In this case, extrinsic motivation is a type of controlled motivation. However, Richard Ryan has made a significant breakthrough that extrinsic motivation can be autonomous. Richard Ryan said that people sometimes internalize extrinsic motivations in some way. In this case, a person can be motivated autonomously by owning and internalizing that extrinsic motivation. For example, let's consider the kid who went to a drawing class to win a new bike award. If this child starts to enjoy the drawing course he attends after a while and finds it suitable for himself, he will be autonomously motivated.

Self-Determination Theory states that people have some basic psychological needs. Among these basic needs, there are three concepts that Self-Determination Theory particularly emphasizes: autonomy, competence and relatedness. According to the theory, people who can satisfy these needs in a healthy way have a positive psychology. People who cannot meet these needs face negative psychological consequences.

Autonomy; It is the name given to the need to feel control over one's own life by one's own will and choice. If people feel that they have lost control over their own lives, they enter into a number of negative moods. Thus, Self-Determination Theory emphasizes that autonomy is a universally human need.

  A person at some point in his life wants to feel successful, effective and competent about any subject. This need to feel effective and competent is called competence. In order to meet this need, people engage in various activities such as getting a job, learning a language, attending courses, and acquiring a hobby.

Humans are social creatures by nature and they need feelings of belonging, importance and commitment throughout their lives. This need is called relatedness. Concepts such as kinship and friendship are important for relatedness. It is one of the most basic and important needs of a person to be cared for and to be cared for by someone else, or to be in a group and feel belonging to that group.

Motivation is needed in all areas of life, such as home, school, workplace, health, safety, sports. Whether we are parents, teachers or bosses, if we want to produce effective motivation, we have to meet and support the psychological needs of the person in front of us, which form the basis of Self-Determination Theory. If we are parents, we must provide these conditions for our children and support their needs, and if we are a boss and want to encourage the most effective motivation, we must support these psychological needs of our employees. At this point, Self-Determination Theory has a very important role in every aspect of life.

CHARACTERS: BLANCA: Blanca is a 35-year-old laboratory technician. She has an intense level of cleaning compulsions. She is afraid of contracting various illnesses, viruses, and infections from every object and person she touches. In the film, when other characters touch her, she experiences great discomfort and exhibits a behavior of washing her hands in the bathroom for minutes. Blanca's social functioning has been disrupted due to her fear of catching germs and her compulsions. In fact, Blanca summarizes her situation in the movie with the sentence, "I isolated myself from everything, sometimes cleaning takes so much time that I don't have time to live."

OTTO: Otto, who lives with his mother, is a character with symmetry and order obsessions. He has an obsession with not stepping on lines, which makes his movements seem strange and damages his social relationships. Otto has the Organizing - Ordering subtype of OCD, and he feels compelled to place objects in a certain order. When asked why, he says he feels more comfortable doing so, rather than providing a logical explanation. This situation is different from an ordinary person's sense of order, as slight displacement of an object from its place causes great discomfort, and the person feels the urgent need to correct it.

FEDERICO: Federico is a 60-year-old single man who has had Tourette syndrome since he was 11 years old. Tourette syndrome includes many different motor and vocal tics. In the film, our character has a tic that includes obscene words and gestures. This is called Coprolalia. Individuals with Coprolalia repeat, involuntarily, body movements and loudly utter obscene words that can be socially disturbing. People with this syndrome, like Federico, experience a significant decrease in their quality of life. As we see in Federico's case, people with this syndrome find it very difficult to socialize and establish relationships with others.

EMILIO: Emilio is a taxi driver who suffers from counting compulsions (arithmomania) and hoarding and saving compulsions. Individuals with counting compulsions cannot resist counting and keeping track of things around them to cope with their obsessions. In the film, Emilio, who has counting compulsions, shows signs of counting objects (stair steps), doing mathematical calculations, and counting words. Another compulsion that Emilio has is hoarding and saving, where individuals with this compulsion collect and accumulate things that others consider insignificant and have difficulty throwing them away, even experiencing great anxiety when attempting to dispose of them, believing that they will need them one day. Emilio's compulsions have disrupted his quality of life and damaged his interpersonal relationships, leading to divorce from his wife.

LILI: Lili is a fitness instructor who is a single woman. After her father's death, Lili developed echolalia and palilalia. Individuals with echolalia repeat sounds made by someone else, while those with palilalia repeat the speaker's words with varying degrees of repetition. If Lili does not repeat these phrases, she is afraid that something bad will happen to her. In other words, she neutralizes the thought of something bad happening by expressing it in her behavior (word/sentence repetition).

ANA MARIA: Ana Maria is a housewife with various checking compulsions. She has specific routines to follow before leaving the house, such as checking if the stove is on, if the windows are open, or if the faucets are turned off. She also performs certain religious ritualistic practices, including praying and touching the statue of Jesus before leaving the house. Ana Maria's fundamental belief is that if she doesn't check things before leaving the house, she may face various disasters. She neutralizes this idea with her checking behavior, thinking that the same thing that she hears about in bad scenarios can happen to her. For example, she believes that not making the sign of the cross when hearing bad words or curses can make her a sinner.

These six characters, who have different subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder, start discussing their diagnoses when they realize that the doctor won't be coming. At this point, they start trying some methods to decrease their problematic behaviors. Supporting each other, they use a technique called "exposure therapy" in psychology and try to spend time without performing their compulsions. At the end of the movie, they realize that their mutual support and the exposure therapy they have applied have resulted in some improvement in their compulsions, even for a short time.