Dissonance, perhaps characterizes modern life...or at least a style that might be characterized as conflicted, disconnected, atrophied...No longer moving forward. but taking charge.

On the personal level, we are perhaps fitting selves to roles that do not really "work"

At one point in Lars and the Real Girl, the doctor uses the term decompensation, which refers to the "functional deterioration of a previously working structure or system." It's a wonderful term, since it can result from a variety of stressors, including fatigue, illness, or even old age.   

 When a system is "compensated", it is able to function despite stressors or defects. Decompensation describes an inability to compensate for these deficiencies. It is a general term commonly used in medicine to describe a variety of situations.

Accepting a person without necessarily endorsing a behavior.  In this scene from Lars and the Real Girl, the church members shuck their supposed uptight prudery and celebrate the appearance of Bianca.  Presumably, they are following along with the doctor's prescription to indulge the delusion "Bianca's in town for a reason" until Bianca will no longer be necessary.  And it is true that the family starts acting like a unit and their caring extends even to the townsfolk who follow their lead.

In a classic scenario of decompensation, Hitchcock's Lifeboat suggests there are unexpected levels in each personality.  Notice what it is that anchors at least one of the characters?

We all need to plant something good, and family life provides a structure for that intimate connection necessary to getting up and facing another new day but also extends out to envision a community potentially based on caring.  Not something the psychologist, government social worker, or bureau of statistics addresses very well.

Family can be stifled by the State. In a clip from a film based on George Orwell's 1984, the propagandist voice intones:  "As we know the biological and social stimulation of the family leads to something outside party needs..." said in a hypnotically scientific monotone.   

Signed,

The Philosopher's Daughter