The paper aims to address cynicism as a variant of cruelty in thinking. Cynicism would be, on the one hand, in a kinship relation with narcissistic perversion, distortion of reality and operative thinking and on the other hand, in a relation of defensive opposition with mourning, ideal, beauty and poetic function. A particular relation of cynicism with the mental space and time is set forth, in an action of “contraction” of the latter in order to control it. Cynicism is seen as an «ideology of the limit», at the extreme, the cruel limit of life and death. As an illustration of this idea, comparative references are made to several movies: “Life Is Beautiful” directed by Roberto Benigni, “Ivan's childhood” directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and “The Messenger” directed by Oren Moverman, as well as in the novel “Everything Is Illuminated” by J.S. Foer. The paper also sets forth two clinical vignettes.