Character Personality Assignment
Chuanbo Pan: AP Psychology B, 18wk
Brief Summary: The Grinch
The Grinch is a Christmas Classic that many people have heard of before. The little town of Whoville is celebrating Christmas as they usually do: by buying presents, and having festivities. However, the Grinch is annoyed by Christmas and all the "happiness" it brings. Thus, he decides to "steal" Christmas. He goes about on Christmas Eve and removes anything related to the festivities. However, the next day, the people still come out to sing and have fun. This make the Grinch realize that Christmas was more than just gifts and festivities and as a result, he returns Christmas to the citizens of Whoville.
Oral Fixation
The Oral stage is when a child finds pleasure when it comes to biting, chewing, or swallowing. If the child is fixated on this stage, then it is called Oral Fixation. Characteristics of Oral Fixation include constantly biting nails or chewing something. This is shown in the picture to the right where the Grinch is biting his nails in nervousness. There is another scene when the Grinch is eating a toothpick. Furthermore, another characteristic of Oral Fixation includes having an aggressive mouth. This is obviously shown by the Grinch's attitude towards the people and Christmas.
Id
Id is obviously shown in the Grinch. Id is the energy that strives to satisfy aggressive drives. It runs off the pleasure principal. The Grinch, who hates Christmas so much, wants to destroy the spirit of Christmas in the town of Whoville. As a result, he finds immense pleasure in doing so, even to the point of dressing up as Santa to infiltrate all the houses. The image shows him eagerly listening for the sounds of distress from the people of Whoville.
Defense Mechanism: Projection
When the Grinch is planning his malicious plan (as shown to the left), he is projecting his own personality onto others. His malicious desires include wanting the people of Whoville to cry and to be extremely disappointed by the lack of presents of any other festive decorations. In other words, he is defending himself by projecting his own view of the world to the other people: a depressing and miserable world.
Defense Mechanism: Displacement
Displacement is placing aggressiveness onto a third party. This may involve slamming the door shut, punching pillows or in the Grinch's case, abusing his dog. In order to get his plans across and show is frustration with the people, the Grinch, as shown in the picture to the right, is very harsh to his dog and is displacing his aggressiveness towards the dog.
Superego
The superego according the Freud is the moral compass of the person. It tells the person what is right and forces the person to consider the ideal. It focuses on positive interactions and perfection. The Grinch's superego is shown after he listens to the people of Whoville singing even after they lost all their presents. His finds out that Christmas festivities isn't everything to Christmas and changes his mind. Thus, he goes back down to return the gifts to everything. To the left shows the Grinch's heart expanding as he considers doing what is right.
References
Myers, David G. Psychology, Tenth Edition. New York: Worth Publishers, 2013.