Abuse In John Bender's The Breakfast Club

444 Words1 Page

In The Breakfast Club, John Bender shows many signs similar to those discussed in the Psychoanalytic approach. For instance, Bender shows signs repressed memories and suppressed sexual thoughts. Bender finds it difficult to respect Vice Principal Vernon because of the physical abuse he endured from his father. The abuse he endured created a sense of disrespect for other men whom try to gain authority over him. The mental abuse within the Bender household gave Bender an excuse for not sympathizing with the other students. He does not care what they think or say about him.
After analyzing John Bender’s psyche, Sigmund Freud’s id, superego, and ego can better explain Bender’s behavior. The id identifies with pleasure. As for Bender, pleasure includes an adrenaline rush when doing something he considers dangerous or illegal. For instance, when hiding from Vernon, he hides under Claire’s desk and his desires took over when he place his face under her skirt in a sexual manner. He displays other adrenaline fueled acts when running through the halls to avoid Vernon, smoking marijuana, and escaping from his enclosure by crawling through the air ducts. The superego brings about a sense of right and wrong, such as when Bender takes …show more content…

Reaction formation goes beyond denial, it satisfies the id while keeping their true thoughts from the ego. Bender indefinitely is using reaction formation with Claire. He has convinced himself, or his ego, that he hates her. She is conceited and secretive and undeserving of anyone’s attention. Whereas in reality, he wants her attention. He has turned his hatred for her into love and begins to feel a connection. Yet, Bender also uses displacement towards Claire as well. He takes his problems out on her. His anger towards societal problems are turned onto Claire being the problem. She is one of the members of the conceited, wealthy, society that he so utterly

Show More
Related

  • Homer Vs Lisa And The 8th Commandment Essay

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    This idea seems to hold true within the Simpsons. Homer shows some remorse about stealing the cable, but when the community caught wind of Homer's new service, everyone wanted to be his friend in order to watch a boxing match. All of these people served as wood to fuel the raging flame of the ID. Lisa continued to pressure her father into getting rid of the cable. As the episode progresses you can see her words starting to get into Homer's head. In order to combat this and satisfy the desire of him and his friends, Homer kicks Lisa out of the home. If Freud were to watch this episode he would most likely classify this act as the pleasure principle. Within the pleasure principle, the Id does whatever it takes to reduce tension and gain satisfaction. Homer identified Lisa as the tension and kicks her out of the house to increase his pleasure. This pleasure although is not permanent. Once everyone has left, Homer decides to cut the cable. Lisa acting as the superego was able to get her message across and Homer returned to a psychic balance. He was able to get his pleasure but no longer faced the guilt of

    Read More

  • Violence In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Violence and death surrounds everyone, from movies to books to news. These subjects are particularly prevalent in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Kesey's main goal for writing the novel was to show his readers the atrocities within mental health wards. However, he managed to have a greater impact in young adults' lives than ever imagined. Although there are instances of death and violence in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it should be included in high school curriculum because exposure to these topics helps teenagers to properly deal with similar situations in their own lives.

    Read More

  • The Breakfast Club

    392 Words  | 1 Pages

    Five teenagers who don't' know each other spend a Saturday in detention at the suburban school library. At first they squirm, fret and pick on each other. Then after sampling some marijuana, a real encounter session gets underway. The stresses and strains of adolescence have turned their inner lives into a minefield of disappointment, anger and despair.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Conflict In The Breakfast Club

    395 Words  | 1 Pages

    The 1985 film, The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes shows how a person’s identity can be influenced by conflict he or she has experienced in life. First, John Bender is in the library telling everyone how he got a cigar burn on his arm from his dad. For example, his mother and father don’t treat with the most respect or any respect at all. They call him names and say he can’t do anything right. One day him and his dad got into a really bad argument and his dad burnt him with is cigar that he had. Because his parents treat him that way, he treats everyone he’s around very badly.

    Read More

  • Abuse In Lord Of The Flies

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shocking studies show that human nature and fear of the unknown can cause a person to use verbal and physical abuse, even to the point of murdering their own comrades. Examples of such cases can be seen in Lord of the flies, a story written by William Golding, showing fear of a "beast" so extreme it led to violence, group fragmentation, and eventually murder. What seems like nothing more than a story proves much more terrifying when compared to real life survivor stories, also connecting to fear of unreal monsters, competition with savage behavior and decisions. The threat of opposition from rival groups and fear of our own imagination are two factors to cause normal citizens to ignore rational behavior and self-control, falling into a savage

    Read More

  • The Influence Of Adolescence In The Breakfast Club

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    What can you learn about adolescence by watching five very different teens spend Saturday detention together? With each and everyone of them having their own issues weather it be at home, school, or within themselves. During this stage of life adolescents are seen as rude, disrespectful, and out of control. But why is this? Is it truly all the child’s fault? Teens have to face quite a few issues while growing up. Adolescence is the part of development where children begin push back against authority and try to figure out who they are or who they are going to become. Therefore, we will be looking at adolescent physical changes, their relationships, cognitive changes and the search for identity as depicted in the movie The Breakfast Club (Hughes,1985).

    Read More

  • Social Psychology In The Movie The Breakfast Club

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of these is normative social influences, this is “the influence others have on us because we want them to like us (King, 2013, p. 447). Andrew shows this when he talks about how he got in detention. Andrew states he bullied a kid, so the kid would think he was cool. You see that Andrew does this disgusting action to this kid so he could be seen as cool. Another social behavior that is seen in the film is the fundamental attribution error, which is observers overestimate the importance of the internal traits and underestimate the importance of external factors when explaining others behaviors. We see the fundamental attribution error a lot in this movie. First we see it with Brian, everyone sees him as smart. But when Brian explains that he failed shop class people were surprised; they never thought this kid would ever fail, since he is so smart. Another is with Bender, they see him as disrespectful and aggressive. What they do not know is, at home, he is being verbally and physically abused by his dad and has to defend himself. This can bring us to conformity, which is a change in a person’s behavior to get more closely with group standards. We see this with all five of the students. Let’s start with Andrew, he covers up his hatred for him father so he wouldn’t be seen as abnormal. Then you have Brian who talks about contemplating suicide for failing a class. He did not want to

    Read More

  • Examples Of Isolationism In The Breakfast Club

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Who are you?" This is the question five high school students are asked at the beginning of a Saturday detention session in The Breakfast Club. This question is not just unique to these students in this high school, but this is a question all high school students attempt to figure out by the time they go off to college or join the work force. Unfortunately, a person is often perceived based on stereotypes which does not reveal the true person. In The Breakfast Club, perception of students based on stereotypes leads to biased expectations, isolation, and peer pressure in American high schools.

    Read More

  • Abuse In The Kite Runner

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abuse; treat a person with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly. Amir’s constant abuse throughout The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, was in cause of his selfish actions, the horrendous mistreatment, and the degrading of Hassan’s educational level of understanding. Amir and Hassan had grown up together, neither with a mother but together they try to form a friendship that will never bloom to its full potential. In the beginning of the story Amir seems as if he is a kind friend to Hassan, but as times grow longer he realizes what he truly thinks of Hassan.

    Read More

  • The Breakfast Club: Interpersonal Themes, You-It And I-Thou '

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is shown as the movie progresses by how the principal consistently puts Bender in his own category regarding his behavior, unlike the other students. Bender received many threats from the principal along with insults claiming that five years into the future he’ll be homeless or in jail. Throughout the whole film, the “I-It” relationship between Vernon and Bender never changes. Bender tried to find different ways to rebel against Vernon due to his position as an authority figure. Vernon went through many routes in his attempts to criticize Bender. He gladly assigned him more detentions during their arguments and even promises to fight him in the future if they were too cross paths. They both lacked any type of respect toward each other which evidently shows the “I-It” relationship that they

    Read More

  • Regarding Henry, By Sigmund Freud

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many scientists ponder over why humans act the way they do. Freud constructed a theory that people make decisions using three concepts: the ego, superego, and id. In Regarding Henry, the id and superego were very prominent. Henry dealt with a moral dilemma when his id constantly got in the way due to his mental drawback as a result of the incident. In the duration of the movie, his battle between id and ego are easy to identify.

    Read More

  • Review of the Movie: The Breakfast Club

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...d to be a jock and rough person who is really competitive as a wrestler. However he is actually pressured to be aggressive and competitive by his father, which he does not accept or like. Brian is perceived to be a genius, confident and nerdy person. However he is in fact pressured by his parents to exceed in school and do more than what he is capable of doing. As such, he breaks down when he gets bad grades which is a disappointment to his parents. Lastly, John is perceived to be a cold, “badass”, gangster type of person who harasses people with regret or remorse. However he behaves this way because his parents are abusive to him and treat him disgustingly. To cope with this, John behaves coldly. In The Breakfast Club various social psychological theories and concepts are demonstrated by the characters through the way they reveal their behaviors and inner selves.

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud: The Comparison Of The Id, Ego And Superego

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the belief that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged in a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logic of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water, he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not have permission to drink, all that matters is that the needs have been met.

    Read More

  • Freud and Aristotle’s Theories of Human Nature

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud and Everyday Use

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sigmund Freud is best known for his development and use of psychoanalysis. The theory of psychoanalysis focuses on the concept of how our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and emotions play an active role in our daily lives. The id, ego, and superego are the three mental zones that encompass our psyche. Each zone has a specific function: The id functions on the pleasure principle; the ego on the protection of the individual; and the superego on protection of society. The degree of which each zone has been developed can be broken down and then analyzed. These three zones can be visualized by imagining a pie cut into three slices.

    Read More

More about Abuse In John Bender's The Breakfast Club

Open Document