The Sherlock Blog Party: Mind Palace or Prison

     In The Sherlock Blog Party tag, one of the questions was 'would I rather have Sherlock's mind or John's compassion?' 

My answer:

Compassion always wins out in the end. Sherlock's mind was incredible, but ultimately very damaged and that damage caused a great deal of problems with the society he lived in. The trauma that Sherlock faced in his early life caused him to retreat to the only place he knew he was safe and that was his mind. So he honed his abilities of deduction to push out his trauma and by doing so made himself unapproachable and cut off. He was brilliant, but his brilliance and inability to understand people around him is what made him so unlikable to many and basically an outsider.

  

     William Sherlock Scott Holmes is the definition of enigmatic. His brilliant mind has made him a hero and an enemy to society. He is both selfish and sacrificial. He wants to be alone, but not necessarily left out. He insists that he is an emotionless sociopath, yet time and again he has exhibited intense emotion that ranges from pure rage to absolute comic.

    Over the course of the show, Sherlock's family life is slowly revealed . He and his older brother Mycroft and younger sister Eurus all grew up in the comfort and safety of loving parents. Their mother was genius mathematician who passed down her skills of deduction to her children. Both parents took the extreme intelligence of their children carefully and raised them in a normal family setting. In a nutshell we gather that Sherlock's early childhood was nothing short of idyllic. 

     Then his sister Eurus became the bullet that ended Sherlock's innocent upbringing. Eurus immense loneliness and using her mind as her own sanctuary caused her to kill Sherlock's best friend. These actions put Sherlock through immense shock and trauma. His family sent Eurus away and clearly never spoke of her or actions ever again. As Sherlock was only six when the murder of his friend took place, it's quite easy to forget someone in your life when you're that young and was maybe made easier by his early trauma and wanting to forget it ever happened. 

 This trauma was so strong that Sherlock needed an escape. He found it in the retreating of his mind. 

     Fast forward 17 years later. Sherlock has now developed the extreme use of deduction. By pushing out his emotional childhood trauma, Sherlock created his mind to be void of feeling and replaced it with deduction, reason and intellect. His only exhibiting emotions are arrogance and disdain for people who can't keep up. He has an insatiable desire for danger and a competitive streak a mile wide. He has no friends and believes he doesn't need them. 

     Sherlock Holmes retreats into his ever evolving mind palace. A mental safe-hold where any amount of information is kept and stored. His mind palace helps to control his rapid pace thinking. Whenever Sherlock gets agitated or nervous he starts to deduct anything and everything around him. So, while the mind palace is where all information is stored, it also doubles as Sherlock's emotional reserve. 

     All of Sherlock's mental and emotional energy is fueled into his mind. His mind is where he knows he's the safest and where no one can touch him. Yet, the mind palace can also become Sherlock's prison. If Sherlock is able to retreat into the safety of his mind, then he is unable to emotionally respond to people around him. 

     Sherlock's emotionally devastating childhood trauma of losing both his best friend and his sister caused him to retreat into the only world he understood. His mind. Fear, death, sadness, loss, separation can all be triggers for self isolation. Sherlock's family made the mistake in not telling their son the truth about what really happened to him and his sister. It is interesting that Eurus killed Sherlock's friend because she was lonely. By doing so, she damned her own brother to a life dominated by loneliness, seclusion and self doubt. 

     Then along comes John Waston. Broken down by war, John is also trying to readjust to a normal human world. While the two men are very different, they are both connected by trauma. John's from war and Sherlock's from childhood. They coped with their trauma by doing what they knew they were good at. Sherlock, living from his mind and John, understanding the human heart.

     As their friendship progresses, Sherlock witnesses John's ability to reason with people with decency. When things get too hard, John doesn't retreat. He carry's on. He doesn't hide away. John doesn't have to bury his emotions with people. Instead he allows his emotions to reach out to people whether in kindness or anger. By doing so, people respect John and want be around him. 

    Overtime and with John's help, Sherlock begins to depend less and less on his mind and instead allow his emotions to understand the world around him. While Sherlock's mind palace has solved many cases as well as saved Sherlock's life, the palace is visited less and less. The prison walls begin to crumble. Sherlock is beginning to rediscover the world again just as he did as a boy. After Eurus is found and saved and Sherlock is no longer a victim of trauma, he becomes the person he has always desired to be. A good man who has a good heart. A man that people can depend and rely on. 

    Sherlock might have solved Eurus final puzzle with his mind, but he rescued her with his heart. His compassion, love, dignity and understanding that had been bottled up for so long came through. He has faced the worst evil and defeated it not with deduction, but with sacrifice. He no longer needs to retreat to his mind when fear or doubt set in. He can handle fear and anger because he's no longer alone. Sherlock knows he can keep himself and the people he loves safe. Sherlock's life is finally his own, and his mind and heart finally able to coincide peacefully.