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Psychodynamic Theories Of Personality In The Film The Good Son

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Theory According to Vito and Maahs (2011), Psychodynamic Theory is A view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs. Sigmund Freud proposed a psychodynamic theory according to which personality consists of the id (responsible for instincts and pleasure-seeking), the superego (which attempts to obey the rules of parents and society), and the ego (which mediates between them according to the demands of reality) (p.113). Homicide and psychodynamics come together because people act according to their mental state. In order to understand why people commit crimes we must understand their feelings. Homicide is the act while psychodynamics is the mental state. The word psycho comes from psychology and the point of psychology is to understand people and their problems. In this case it is …show more content…

The film reflects the idea of psychodynamic theory, which views personality in terms of conscious and unconscious. It begins when Henry kills a dog with a bolt gun that he created. Henry also shows Mark a fake body that he constructs named Mr. Highway. The boys take Mr. Highway to a bridge overlooking the highway and before Mark can react. Then Henry throws Mr. Highway over the bridge causing a car collision. These disturbing events and Henry’s cool character when speaking about his deceased little brother shows that there is something wrong with him. He always gains self-pleasure from his malicious acts. We find out later in the movie that Henry caused the death of his little brother and attempted to kill his sister and mother. Every time Henry sees Mark and his mom together he would get extremely jealous. Jealousy is the trigger to Henry’s delinquent behavior because he gets rid of his little brother and hated his sister. In this case, Henry feels that Mark, his sister and little brother are trying to take all his parents attention away from him (Ruben,

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When Henry is growing up this shows that Henry is much more willing to accept the reality. Then be bullied on the sidelines with others that judge him. When Henry is more comfortable with him being himself he has learned that being who you are will mean so much more than people judging him because of his

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He is worried about his son’s mental health how he would act strangely quiet and try to change every subject that makes him feel uncomfortable. He should’ve had a discussion with his wife about how much he wants to stay in a healthy relationship with her, but is struggling because of his grieving. And that he should talk to her in trying to be more connected with their son Conrad, to do only what is best for his future. Also the problem with the mother Beth, she is shown to be very disconnected with her

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Ford shares the differences in parenting styles between how Henry parents his son and the way that Henry was parented by his father. The novel juxtaposed the parenting skills of both Henry and his father in the sense of how much they allowed the child to marry. Henry was told that he had to marry a Chinese girl and Henry does not mind whether or not Marty marries one or not. This is why when Marty brought home Samantha he was not sure how his father would act. When Henry was very accepting and was glad that Marty was happy it took Marty a moment to understand.

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A negative in this is when Henry is first told he is returning home, and first arrives home he holds some resentment because his ID drives him to want to stay in his comfort zone. Similarly, Henry strongly expresses his ID when he admits to cheating on his wife, doing so because of his desire. This leads Henry to a strong negative, expressing repression by pushing down his memory of doing this, possibly to convince himself it did not happen. However, the superego part of his brain comes into action, leading him back to his wife and facing the reality of his actions and their powerful effects. When Henry and his wife resurface their love and marriage, Henry points out how he has changed and now he likes and dislikes differently than in the past.

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