Forrest Gump Personality Analysis: Overcoming Disabilities Through Psychodynamic Lens

Abstract

Course name Instructor’s name Assignment due date Personality Analysis of the Character Forrest Gump Psychodynamic theories describe the relationship between the personal and interpersonal relationships and their impact on personality. Reviewing psychodynamic theories demonstrates how personality develops in different stages of life and the impact this has on the individual. The film Forrest Gump produced in 1994 describes the life of Forrest Gump from his childhood to adult life. His character is interesting since he faced physical and learning disabilities that do not prevent him from achieving successes as an adult. With a low-than-average IQ of 75, Gump struggles with formal and informal learning and developing relationships with other people (Zemeckis, 1994). The film demonstrates the importance of key relationships including the love of his mother and best friend Jenny Curran. The analysis of film characters is an important way of testing and plying psychodynamic theories in real life situations (Hogan & Sherman, 2020). For this paper, the analysis will focus on Gump and use Erik Erikson’s Psychonomic theory and the humanistic theory to show how theorists would analyze the personality of the character. Erikson’s theory of development is based on the crises that people endure in different stages of life and their impact on development. The theorist divided life into eight stages of development and showed the impact that success in the crisis of each stage affects development. The theory shows that life could be divided into infancy, early childhood, pre-school, school, adolescence, young and middle adulthood, and maturity stages (Maree, 2022). As opposed to other theorists, Erikson viewed personality as the result of the interactions that an individual encounters throughout their life beyond childhood years. Consequently, he showed that the development of personality occurs past the adolescent years and that the early, middle, and late adulthood had major implications on personality. People’s achievements and failures in each stage are the result of their own personal development and the influence of their relationships with other people. Erikson would view Gump’s infancy as a significant stage in his development and ability to overcome his learning and physical developmental challenges. While other people view the character as having challenges and being special, his mother insists that he has the ability to overcome the challenges that he faces in life (Cervone & Pervin, 2022). She insists that Gump should not attend a special learning institutions since he is a normal child capable of achieving successes like other children. Gump has to face challenges that he feels could only succeed with the support of his mother who was loving and caring. According to Erikson’s theory, the conflict in the infancy stage is trust and mistrust that results from the closest relationships in a child’s life (Maree, 2022). The character’s narration of his childhood shows that he developed trust and successfully navigated the crisis for this stage. In the preschool stage, the film demonstrates that Gump was successfully able to develop some level of independence as a child. The film shows that he was able to take initiative while interacting with guests at his home. In a scene with a visitor in his home, Gump is training to play the guitar and he notes that he remembers this experience as an important stage as a child. Gump’s challenges had significant implications on his life as a young adult and his ability to develop relationships. However, Erikson would conclude that his life at this stage was a success since he was able to develop friendships and pursued romance with his best friend Jenny. The difficulties in Gump’s life affected his potential for romantic partnerships with other people and his place in the school. He often encountered bullying and responded with attempts to protect himself and other people (Cervone & Pervin, 2022). In particular, Gump demonstrated his devotion to the friendship with jenny by attempting to protect her from bullies. Erikson would view that the character emerged from the stage with intimacy as a result of the relationship that he built with Jenny. Additionally, the sixth stage of the character’s life falls at the time when he joined the U.S. Army and became friends with Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue. Bubba was an influential character in his life that contributed to his personality. Erikson’s theory would demonstrate the relationship between Gump and his friend Bubba as a defining factor for his success in the military. Gump was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving Bubba and Lieutenant Dan despite being injured himself. Erikson would conclude that Gump achieved successes in the major stages of development that contributed to his personality. A theory that would describe the character’s personality is the humanistic theory that emphasizes on the natural urge for people to seek to fulfil their potential and the wellbeing of other people. The theory shows that humanism has significant contributions to the decisions that people make and their actions. It shows that the concepts of free will and self-actualization have significant contributions to people’s personality. According to the theory, the actions of individuals can best be explained by their objectives to do good to achieve the best outcomes for their lives and other people (DeRobertis & Bland, 2020). Personality based on the theory seeks to match the motivations that drive people’s...