Psychology assignment: personality assessment Film: Good Will Hunting Character analysis: Will Hunting The purpose of this report is to analyse the personality of the character, Will Hunting from the film Good Will Hunting using the psychodynamic and humanistic theories of personality. The main characters discussed in this text and their relationship to Will can be seen in appendix 1. Will Hunting epitomises a punk prodigy. The 20-year-old delinquent works as a janitor at MIT, solving impossible equations meant for students in his spare time. After being caught solving an equation only few could solve, he is recruited by one of MIT’s professors and made to participate in a rehabilitation programme with the hope of being employed by the …show more content…
Freud focussed on the idea that personality is made up of unconscious and conscious drives, which could be illustrated by the design of an ice berg (see diagram 1). Freud suggested that, like with the biggest part of an ice berg being under water, most of the personality was unconscious. He split the mind into three main categories: the id, the ego and the super ego. He defined the Id as the pleasure principle that represented a person’s innate desires and drives. The superego represented a form of conscience that provided a means to live morally and righteously. In order to mediate between the polarities of the superego and the id, Freud suggested that the ego worked as the reality principle and mediated between the two desires; thus achieving the desires of the Id, whilst still satisfying the morality of the …show more content…
Will develops a false sense of superiority about his own character as a coping mechanism. He refuses to develop lasting relations with others who are not ‘perfect’ as he is aware that perfect people do not exist. As stated by Sean, this mechanism only allows Will to, “go through life without really knowing anybody.” In the same way, Wills actions often did not match his dialogue. He asks the question, “what if I don’t want to?” in response to pursuing his academic ability further, implying a disinterest. Contrastingly to this statement, Will then proceeds to solve impossible equations at MIT anonymously. Further, Will also lacked unconditional `positive regard from parents and guardians throughout his childhood and during his adult life, and this is a vital component of Rogers healthy personality. His lack of parental love and nurture assisted his inability to commit and take personal risks. Maslow’s approach to humanistic psychology would indicate an unhealthy personality that had not reached self actualisation or the fully functioning person as Will did not progress from certain stages of the hierarchy of needs. While he had most of the elements for the physiological needs, he lacked major elements in the safety needs. He did not have a stable job as he kept getting himself fired, he did not have a family, his living arrangements were precarious
Some people dream of wealth, happiness, or genius, but is any of that easily attainable? An intellectual young man from the movie Good Will Hunting has an unusually high IQ that is shrouded by emotional problems. Will Hunting is arrested after yet another case of physical assault in Boston, and this time it was a police officer. When he is arrested, his genius is discovered by a college professor, Gerald Lambeau, who sees potential in Will despite his flaws. Instead of jail time, Labeau offers him a fair bargain. As long as Will attends mandatory therapy, he will be allowed to work alongside the professor. But education isn’t everything, because under Wills sarcastic wit and mathematical genius, he hides his true self. Will scares off five different therapists before he finds himself stuck with Sean Maguire, who ends up using personal and profound forms of therapy to crack Wills shell. Sean delivers this speech to help Will realize his ignorance of his insecurities and other people by using ethos, logos, and pathos appeals; Sean addresses that true knowledge and perspective can only
Good Will Hunting is the graceful tale of a young gentleman’s struggle to find out where he belongs in the world, by first finding out who he himself is. In this film, Matt Damon takes on the role of a disturbed genius that has a keen understanding of the deepness of human character. The film is a voyage through the mind of Will Hunting as he is required to undergo psychotherapy as an alternative to serving jail time. With the assistance of a psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Will learns about himself and recognizes his individual worth in the world by comprehending what is most important to him in his own life. This motion picture serves as a source of superb example for film technique. Gus Van Sant’s directing ability joined with the writing skills of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also plays Will’s best buddy, Chuckie, is a vibrant mixture of technical features used to induce sentiment and compassion amongst the viewers of this heart-warming film. Characteristics of the color, angles, shots, camera movement, editing, and distortions are all each particularly noteworthy to the general composition of Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting.
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
Good Will Hunting is a film which conveys many interlocking themes and messages to its viewers. One of these nicely woven themes is placing trust in the people we care about as well as people we have only recently become acquainted with. Another message, arguably more significant than the last is finding and pursuing the potential one has and bringing meaning into our lives in any form we choose. I believe the potential and success this film demonstrates is that success, growth, and meaning in a person’s life does not always have to come in the form of advancing in a career or social status but rather in the form of overcoming hardships and developing close reciprocating relationships.
Freud begins to create the map of mental life through the ideas of the ego, the id, and the superego. The ego, or consciousness, is the manner in which a person first realizes tha...
Freud believed that the mind was made up of three individual things (The ID, the ego and the superego) everyday these parts would develop and will form that individual’s personality, these parts would learn of the individual’s childhood events and experiences.
The purpose of this report is to analyse the personality of the character, Will Hunting from the film Good Will Hunting using the psychodynamic and humanistic theories of personality. The main characters discussed in this text and their relationship to Will can be seen in appendix 1.
The sociological perspective examines the hidden reasons for one’s actions and identities that people have. It stressed how they are influenced by their society and most of all their social location. Social location predetermines all aspects of one’s life and there are rules that come with social location, and with rules come social control mechanisms and social stratification that keep people in line. With social location also come institutions that provide roles which form one’s identity. In the movie, “Good Will Hunting,” the main character Will Hunting is a young deviant what grows up in a rough neighbourhood and has the intellect of a genius. Role theory and other concepts from the sociological perspective explain Will Hunting’s actions and identity.
(Erikson, 1980) Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development theory are in my opinion one of the best ways to look at Will Hunting’s changing personality and behaviour in the movie. Will’s avoidant and defensive personality is due to his abusive foster parents, he never received sympathy from his foster parents which made him accept the abuse as well as him becoming the abuser, as we see in the film when Will fights a former classmate that bullied him in kindergarten years ago. Another example of abuse is in the form of psychological abuse towards the marriage of Macguire and his deceased wife in which Will continually insults. Will seems to fluctuate stages throughout the movie, due to being an orphan and abuse from his foster parents he is fluctuating between the stages of basic trust vs. mistrust, and Initiative vs. guilt. Then when he meets Skylar (Minnie Driver) his development shifts to intimacy vs. isolation. (Erikson,
This paper will discuss the relationship between Will Hunting and the psychologist Sean Mcguire in the movie Good Will Hunting. The struggles that occur between these main characters will be analyzed and their meanings found. A basic outline of the movie will be included to give the larger picture and its influence upon the two men.
A Comparison of the Main Approaches to Personality Psychology Psychology of personality is a difficult concept to define and quantify, therefore most personality theories, however different they may be in other respects, share the basic assumption, that personality is a particular pattern of behaviour and thinking, that prevails across time and situations and differentiates one person from another. Most theories attempting to explain personality represent part of the classic psychological Nature verse Nurture debate. In other words, is personality “inherited”, or developed through our interactions with the environment. In addition, we shall compare and contrast two of the main approaches to personality psychology by concentrating on Psychoanalytical Theory (Freud) and Social Learning Theory (Bandura). By looking at the Psychodynamic approach, developed by Freud, we can argue that it emphasizes the interplay of unconscious psychological processes in determining human thought, feelings, and behaviours.
He believed everyone is born with the id. All humans when they are babies, according to Freud, are pleasure seeking and concerned with having their needs met. This is the original or unconscious personality. The ego is where decision-making occurs, judgments are made and memory is stored. Lastly, the superego contains the individual’s values, beliefs, and morals, which they get from their parents. According to Freud, women get their morals and beliefs from their mothers and men get it from their fathers. He also believes that...
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.
“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.
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.