I just watched this again last night on DVD, and had a question. When Sandler attends the initial AM session, and Nicholson asks him "who are you", what type of response was Nicholson looking for? Sandler described parts of his personality, and what he did for a living, but I wasn't sure what Jack was going for with that question.
He was trying to instigate an anger reaction. No answer would've been sufficient to him. That's how I always viewed it anyway.
shareI might be a bit silly here but I thought he just wanted him to introduce himself by just stating his name to the group
That's the way I viewed it, but he could have been doing it just to get a rise
Your real identity is not a fleeting, temporary one, based on superficial, materialistic or 'Earthly' (or Maya) things.
Sometimes someone, whether a character, or in real life, asks 'who are you', and wants you to realize two things;
a) Your standard-answer has nothing to do with your actual identity
b) You don't even really know who you truly and really are, or what the question actually means
Basically, when someone is asked that question honestly - putting them into a 'spot', or at least giving them a bit different experience from their formulaic, usual, routine-filled small-talk-life, and all of their superficial (and thus false), easy and automatic answers (that usually satisfy other people) are rejected, they have the opportunity to realize just how FAKE their 'run-of-the-mill' answers are.
People have a zillion 'automatic' answers to that question, but not many people have thoroughly and honestly, deeply self-searched their true and unalienable identity - who are they, REALLY?
If all of their superficiality is stripped away, even down to their whole physical body, so they can't even identify with that (so, 'gender' would not be a true answer, for example) - who are they, then? As pure energy, as pure soul - who are you?
Even silly movies, like 'Fight Club' hint at there being a deeper truth to self-identity than the usual superficial crap people so easily spew out. "You are not your job, you are not how much money you have in the bank..", etc.
Animals don't see you as your job, suit, gender or title. Think about how animals, young children and enlightened Zen masters see you - WHO are you to them? You can't impress a dog with money. Being a 'executive producer' means absolutely nothing to a three-year-old. Belonging to a wealthy family is meaningless to a Zen master.
So WHAT is your true identity to them? Who are you, REALLY? It's the question that drivers us closer to the truth, even if we can't yet quite know the truth (and very few people do)
Now, the explanations here might be correct, but I'd like to think that someone, maybe Nicholson's character, maybe the writer (even sub-consciously) tried to really make us see beyond the box, beyond the 'usual answers' and to do a little soul-searching.
Who is a soul, when they're not a name, title, job, possessions or personality?