This psychoanalysis of the movie "How the Grinch stole Christmas" illustrates the different coping mechanisms used by the grinch . It also demonstrates how the id, ego and superego were used by the character in the movie. A psychoanalysis of How The Grinch Stole ChristmasStory: How the Grinch Stole Christmas takes place in Whoville, a town that inhabits Whos. Rejected by the Whos as a child and living in seclusion for most of his life, the Grinch has always hated the citizens of Whoville and Christmas. When little Cindy Lou Who attempts to fix the Grinch’s hatred from Christmas, by inviting him to participate in the town’s Whobilation, the Grinch gets publicly humiliated. This results in the Grinch’s plan to ruin Christmas for every Who in Whoville. Id, Ego, and Superego: At the beginning of the movie, the Grinch's personality from Freud’s point of view would be considered unbalanced. His actions were dominated by his id as he is a rude and a self-centered individual. The grinch’s ego is unable to balance his id and superego, which results in the Grinch not having a moral ground to stand on. When the Grinch goes to Whoville, his childhood bully makes fun of him causing the Grinch to get frustrated and lose his temper, he then proceeds to burn down the big Christmas tree and causes damage around the town. At the end of the movie his ego is no longer controlled solely by the id, the superego plays its role as well. When he sees that the whos are happy despite their lack of gifts, his now more balanced personality motivates him to do what is morally correct. The reason why the Grinch is dominated by his id at the beginning of the movie is probably due to his lack of parental influence, as he grew up in isolation doing what he wanted when he wanted. Denial: The grinch denies the fact that he wants to be accepted by the whos. When he gets invited to attend the Whobilation, he creates excuses for him not to attend the event, saying things like “I can’t find the time to go” or “I have all the company I need” when in fact he has nothing to do with his time and only has the company of his dog. He does this because he is afraid to be rejected by the whos when he gets there. Displacement: The Grinch feels dissatisfied with his life, especially after years of being isolated from others. When he sees the Whos being all happy and cheerful, it brings out those feelings of failure and depression. He, therefore, displaces his anger towards the Whos and seeks to destroy their happiness. The Grinch also displaces his anger of not being accepted by his childhood peers, on Christmas, when in reality Christmas did nothing to the Grinch. Projection: Near the beginning of the movie, when Cindy Lou Who meets the Grinch for the first time, he says “what is the matter with you? Are you some sort of wild animal?” when in fact he is the one acting like a wild animal. Sublimation: The Grinch hates the whos and Christmas so he takes his actions out by means of aggression. For example, he burns down the tree and causes damage around the town. Reaction formation: When the Grinch sees all the whos in Whoville still celebrating Christmas after he had stolen all of their food and gifts, he proceeds to say “Maybe Christmas, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” The Grinch replaced the negative belief that Christmas was all about giving and receiving gifts, with a more positive thought on Christmas. He then overcomes his hatred for the Whos and Christmas and returns all of the stolen items.
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In this project we reflected on our personalities to come up with our values and our traits. We then proceeded to answer questions about ourselves to analyze how these traits and values affect us. I created my word clouds using wordle. TraitsValues1. I suppress some of my core personality traits when I meet new people. I think I do this because when you are around new people I tend to be shy and act more polite.
2. My personality traits are amplified when I am with my best friends having fun and just being myself. 3. A personality trait that makes my life more difficult is that I am clumsy and I always lose my belongings. To change this I have to start being more aware of my surroundings and remembering where I put down my stuff. 4. One trait that separates me from my friends is that I get very anxious when I don’t have anything to do. During the weekend and summer, I can’t spend a whole day inside, doing nothing without feeling really guilty. 5. A subconscious motive that has helped create who I am today is the idea of perfection. I have always tried to do my absolute best when it comes to school, friendships, sports… 6. I have always been rewarded for trying my best. Not necessarily rewarded with materialistic items but more like when you try hard on a school project you get rewarded by a good grade or when you train really hard for a race you get rewarded by good results... 7. I think that I try to emulate my parents. I believe I do this because I have always looked up to them and being more like them would be amazing. 8. My thoughts, feelings, and perceptions influence my behaviour immensely. How I see things and how I feel about them helps me decide how to respond to a situation. And my thoughts drive me to do certain actions. 9. One of my goals that have helped shape my personality is the desire to be liked by everyone around me. To do so, I have to be kind, nice, generous... In this assignment, we assessed psychological tests to give us a deeper understanding of the different types of psychological test. I chose to take a personality test and then proceeded to determine whether the test was reliable, credible and valid.
1. Which coping mechanisms do you use in your life?
2. Are some personality traits more prone to mental illnesses? 3. Why are drugs so commonly used if they have such bad health affects? |