Homer Simpson's Psychodynamic Perspective Of Personality

The humanistic perspective of personality was theorised by Abraham Maslow who created the Hierarchy of Needs to represent two areas of needs an individual must achieve in order to reach self-actualisation. The two groups are divided by their importance; first is our deficiency needs, separated into four lower levels which are physiological, safety and security, belonging and love, and our esteem needs. The growth needs can only be reached once we have achieved all of our deficiency needs and we have not reverted back a step in our search for self-actualisation. The growth needs Maslow stated are understanding, aesthetic, self-actualisation, transcendence. Carl Rogers, another psychological theorist, originally stated that achievement of self-actualisation

Two areas of Freud’s Psychodynamic Perspective of Personality directly relating to the character of Homer Simpson is Developmental Theory of Personality and Psychoanalysis. Throughout the show, Homer has been characterised as an over-impulsive, excessive consumer lacking organisational skills or motivation in his personal or work life. His characteristics, as far as drinking and eating are concerned, are typical of someone who received little oral gratification during the oral stage of psychosexual development. This oral fixation correlates to the absence of his mother during his childhood (0-1 years old), as she was too preoccupied with the Hippie movement. Homer’s father Abe, an ex-army sergeant, was constantly around however he was emotionally disconnected and did not provide Homer with the attention he never received from his mother. As a result of this early starvation of affection and oral gratification, we see Homer unconsciously over-compensating consistently throughout his adulthood, by excessively drinking Duff Beer and eating so that there is always something in his