Personalities at the Movies
The Lion King
Being one of the most famous movies made, The Lion King has touched many hearts throughout the world. The Lion King is a movie about a lion cub named Simba. Simba begins his life as a prince, the son of the powerful king, Mufasa. Scar, Mufasa’s jealous brother, is enraged that Simba will now be the next king and devises a plan to kill both Simba and Mufasa and take the throne. Tragedy occurs when Scar murders Mufasa and drives Simba out of the kingdom. Years later, after Simba grew up, his childhood friend, Nala, finds him again and tells him to save the kingdom from Scar. With the help of his new friends and his father’s spirit, Simba returns to the kingdom and defeats Scar, becoming the new King.
Simba’s personality traits can be dissected into four basic psychological categories; Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Humanistic, and Biological. By dissecting Simba’s personality traits in the movie The Lion King, we can better understand the four psychodynamic perspectives. The Psychodynamic perspective is to understand what is going on in the mind of an individual. It is strongly influenced by childhood experiences, the ID, Ego, and Superego. Sigmund Freud and his colleagues developed this theory. For example, in The Lion King Simba was very playful and adventurous as a cub. Like his father, he always saw the best in everyone, including his uncle Scar. When his father died, Simba ran away because Scar told him it was his fault for his father’s death. Simba wanted to hide those thoughts and feelings, keeping them buried in his unconscious. This is an example of Repression. In the end of the movie, his father’s spirit came to him in the sky and reminded him to face his fears. When Simba got back to the rock, he met with Scar and Scar told him that he killed Mufasa. Simba then reacted out of anger and hostility, and fought Scar directly instead of channeling his anger into...
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