Why Severance Gives Us Hope

Our beloved MDR crew from Severance via GameRant

What if you could completely compartmentalize between your work and personal life? Severance explores the concept of dividing your consciousness into two; in theory, you could achieve the ever-elusive ‘work-life balance’.

If you haven’t already caught the obsession and are in the market for a new TV show, I highly recommend watching Severance on Apple TV+. From the cinematography to the acting to the writing to the immense care with which it seems they have all put into making this show to the COLORS, I am truly in love with it. I will not share spoilers, though I will delve into the plot a bit, and there are so many twists and turns that I am going to have to explain a few things that you may consider revealing. If you want the full experience of the mystery, definitely revisit this post AFTER you’ve watched at least the first few episodes… hm maybe first season to be safe.

I spend most of my waking moments outside of sessions and my daily news routine (a very limited process, for mental health reasons) thinking about Severance. I watch the show, then watch the ‘after the episode’ videos on YouTube, and then listen to the podcast as well as read the extras (highly recommend if you haven’t already: The Lexington Letter and The You You Are). I’ve seen a few fan theories, but don’t want to get too deep into rabbit holes without forming my own. As a mental health professional, a lover of cognitive science, and a fan of film as well as puzzles and mysteries, I simply can’t get enough. And above all, it gives me hope for a better world in the darkest of circumstances.

I’d like to outline a few of my favorite things about Severance to share that hope with you. If you’re already a fan, I hope these validate and offer insights and curiosities for you to explore yourself. If you’re not yet a fan, I hope they connect with you all the same.

First, the premise and a bit of plot with very early, minimal spoilers:

Mark has lost his wife in a car accident. The grief is an unbearable weight, and as a result, he opts to undergo a controversial surgical procedure known as ‘severance’ at Lumon, a corporation with mysterious history and products of all kinds. Severance allows him to separate his consciousness so that his “innie”, the part of him that works and only exists within Lumon, can work. We learn that he hopes this will allow at least part of him to be unburdened by the knowledge of his “outie’s” grief.

Within Lumon, innie Mark meets 3 severed coworkers, Helly R., Dylan G., and Irving B. Together, they navigate the mysteries of the company and the severance procedure. As the characters get to know each other and their supervisors within Lumon, the mysteries get more and more intriguing, more questions arise even as some questions get answered.

John Turturro, as Irving B.

Grief is Not the End

I’ve worked with grief in one form or another with every single client I have. Grief is an experience that every human will have. Grief comes in the transition from attachment to learning to let go. We become attached to our self-image, our loved ones, our environments, our homes, our very existence. Grief is a very powerful experience and emotional tidal wave. It is often the most painful experience we will ever have. It is devastating, rocks the foundation of being. And big and small, we will experience it again and again. It is inevitable.

Many of us run from this feeling. It’s my belief that many of the problems of our world today are caused at their core by an unwillingness to or inability to sit with discomfort. Grief is the ultimate discomfort. It is helplessness, hopelessness, devastation, and agony rolled into one. Why wouldn’t we run away?

Severance tackles this in a very direct way. Through a surgical procedure, a person can divide their consciousness and separate a part of themselves from any feeling, any discomfort. And yet, through the show, they constantly ask the question: what part of the “Self” endures? Love? Values? Does grief inevitably seep through anyways?

What I love most is the depth of relationships within the innie world, as well as how that still continues in the world of the outies. Grief cannot be contained. And though this can feel threatening and overwhelming - I have seen over and over again in therapy that we grow through our grief. That we learn even more about ourselves and develop a new relationship with a person after someone has passed, or after a major life transition. I have seen growth, transformation, and ultimately peace after some of the most devastating periods of grief. Though I wouldn’t say that there is peace within the show, this possibility for transformation is absolutely evident in Severance, and I am enraptured with their portrayal of the complexities that come with it.

Adam Scott, as Mark S.

It’s Worth Getting to Know Different Parts of Me

If you’ve worked with me as a therapist or a coach, then I’ve probably used language like: “there’s a part of you that wants __ and there’s another part that wants __.” It is absolutely fascinating to see two parts of multiple characters literally divided and portrayed as separate beings in Severance. Given certain circumstances, each one of us might experience different versions of ourselves. And since we aren’t severed, we are always trying to understand ourselves from within our own consciousness.

In Severance, as we the viewers watch the innies and the outies on their separate journeys, we have the unique perspective of being able to notice what is similar and what is vastly different between their parts.

What is so valuable about this? As I am currently in the midst of my long-awaited training to finally become Level 1 IFS Certified (so excited!), I have a lot of parts language in the forefront of my mind. IFS is founded on the theory that every single one of us have distinct parts. For example, if you’ve ever felt torn or experienced some sort of dilemma, then you have experienced different parts of yourself that want different things. Something as simple as “I want to eat ice cream, but I know I shouldn’t,” in IFS is interpreted as having a part of you that wants ice cream and a part of you that is regulating based on other rules.

We often are taught to suppress at least one part of us in favor of other parts. Our culture, society, and environment all have certain rules about how to behave / think / feel, expectations we should and shouldn’t have, and which values are superior to others. American society values innovation, individual strength and resilience, and loyalty. American society glues together that being rich with the idea of being happy as the ultimate goal in life. If parts of us don’t always agree with some of these values, we will experience emotional and cognitive dissonance. As a result, these parts will take on roles to protect us, keep us safe, and allow us to stay connected to our society. And though our parts have good intentions, they are taking on more than they can handle. Our system will experience anxiety, depression, burnout, and stress.

Severance shows us a reality where those parts of us that are suppressed can have a life of their own. IFS teaches us that every part of us has something of value, a meaningful message, a helpful perspective that benefits the entire system. And as you watch the show, I encourage you to ask yourself: what are the innies and outies learning from each other? If they could sit down and listen to each other, really truly understanding each other, how would their integrated life be different?

“The work is mysterious and important.”

Capitalism is Big, but Humanity is Bigger

Lumon is a large corporation run by very wealthy people in a high position of power within the world of Severance. Their power seems incredibly daunting and far-reaching. We have very limited information about who these people are, what they truly want, and what motivates them to do what they do. The unknown of Lumon makes this show feel like a thriller at times, a horror movie hiding inside of a dark office comedy. I can take a very educated guess though; if living in capitalism in the U.S. has taught me anything, large corporations are usually seeking two things: increasing returns and immortality.

Our main characters are blinded worker bees in a hive. They know little of the work and even less about the world outside of the company. The innies only exist because Lumon sanctioned this mysterious severance procedure in the first place. They’ve been inundated with Lumon propaganda, fed stories about who they are and what the world is, and given very little respect if any. And despite all of this, it is their relationships with each other that continuously empower them, embolden them, and inspire them to go beyond what they ever would before. This includes rebellion against a corporation with more power than they (and we) can ever fully comprehend.

I see this every day as a therapist. Our relationships with each other, when based on the foundations of love, respect, admiration, and growth-fostering values, are what create the power for us to change our lives. If you ever wondered about what is happening in therapy, one of the main foundations is having a healthy relationship with your therapist in order to then inevitably allow that to inform how you adjust your relationships with others and yourself. And I have also seen that this ripples outward to the society in which we live as well.

With the gravity of what we know about what is happening in our world and our government, we can feel so small and so powerless. And in some ways, this is absolutely true. At the same time, I have seen the resistance through the healing and relationships that inspire us all to go beyond what we ever thought was possible, because we have each other. If you feel hopeless, you aren’t alone. If you feel overwhelmed and grieving deeply, you are not alone. And together, we can feel our feelings and do more to change the terrors of the world than any one of us alone.

Thank you, Severance, for being endlessly entertaining as well as the most inspiring work of art I have seen in a very long time.