That's the Bad Guy

[DISCLAIMER]

Photo credit, property of Universal Pictures, fair use

On the collaborative album From El Barrio, With Love (2020), by lyricist UFO Fev and producer Termanology, is the song “The Bad Guy” that features an audio sample from the film Scarface (1983). In particular, the character Tony Montana states in a restaurant room full of patrons:

What you looking at? You’re all a bunch of fucking assholes. You know why? You don’t have the guts to be what you wanna be? You need people like me. You need people like me, so you can point your fucking fingers and say, “That’s the bad guy.” So… what that make you? Good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie.

Me, I don’t have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth, even when I lie. So, say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There’s a bad guy coming through! Better get out of his way!

Scarface was a popular movie when I was in high school in the ‘90s. At one point, due to imperfections on my face from cystic acne, one of my many nicknames was Scarface, albeit a self-ascribed moniker. As well, Scarface is perhaps one of the most quoted films in hip hop.

Regarding the aforementioned restaurant scene, Tony used a type of unhelpful belief that I’ll briefly discuss herein. Therefore, I invite you to consider a relatively short psychoeducational lesson on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).

REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.

In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.

In Scarface, Tony referred to restaurant patrons as “assholes” and described their perception of him as a “bad guy.” Each of these terms represents a global evaluation. As well, he used a demandingness derivative when telling patrons that they “better get out of his way!”

Regarding this blog entry, I’ll focus only on the global evaluations which constitute inflexible appraisals or evaluations of people. Rather than merely concluding that fallible human beings can behave in an assholish manner, Tony referred to people as assholes.

Similarly, instead of simply admitting that he was an imperfect person, Tony appraised himself as a “bad guy.” While it may be true that people can behave poorly, as an untold number of individuals do morally and ethically bad things, fallible human beings aren’t their behavior.

Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.

Now, I invite you to consider that use of global evaluations—referring to oneself or others as “the bad guy”—isn’t entirely helpful. Rather, you and others are merely fallible human beings who are capable of doing bad things, like inflexibly appraising and evaluating imperfect people.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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