Inside Out Book Analysis

Inside Out written by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley is about a eleven year old girl named Riley Anderson, who moves from Minnesota to San Francisco thus turning her life upside down. It delves into Riley’s mind and the five emotions -- Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, that help guide her through everyday life. Although Joy, the main emotion, tries to keep things positive and create happy memories for Riley she learns that each emotion, especially sadness, has an important purpose and in the end all the emotions work together which allows Riley to lead a more complex emotional life. According to Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide written by Lois Tyson, a psychoanalytic critique involves Sigmund Freud’s idea that

From a psychoanalytic lens, a critic would look to see which psychological concepts might be used or how a character’s behavior represents a particular concept to further understand the work.Sigmund Freud’s idea of the unconscious mind plays a role as the writers, Peter Docter, Meg LaFauve, and Josh Cooley, delve into the life of Riley Anderson as she deals with life after it has been turned upside down. The subconscious in Riley’s mind, which holds all of her deepest fears, is similar to the unconscious mind where repressed fears, traumatic experiences, and desires are sent. Even though the repressed contents are out of reach consciously they can still influence a person’s behavior. Dreams are also part of the unconscious mind where they had an underlying message. For example, Riley’s altered dream of her first day of school could be that she has a fear of embarrassing herself at a new school that possibly makes her an outsider to peers. Lastly, Inside Out could be assumed to be depicting the defenses of displacement and avoidance. When Riley takes her anger out on her father after having a bad day at school would be an example of displacement that takes place. While Riley may avoid contacting her friend would be an example of