Fear of abandonment, inability to deeply connect, hardship in love, abusive childhood, and management of challenging relationship creation are some of the prevalent and relatable movie tropes explored in the modern media. The movie Good Will Hunting is a prime example of how cinema can provide the audience with a comprehensive narrative of one’s complex psyche and its role in relationships, career, and talent. From the perspective of psychology, this film also serves as a field of exploration of various theories and concepts to explain the behavior of the main character. Will Hunting, evidently, suffers from multiple behavioral disturbances caused by his abusive foster family, unfortunate circumstances, and socioeconomic background. This essay will explore the behavior of the protagonist through the application of the attachment theory, defense mechanisms, and object constancy.
Movie Synopsis
Good Will Hunting presents the audience with a narrative of Will Hunting’s life story. At first, he appears to be an extremely intelligent genius with a photographic memory who gains profound insight in any field of studies by merely looking at a textbook once. Despite his talent, Will works as a janitor at Harvard until his genius is discovered by a local mathematician who sees Will’s solution to a problem he worked on for years. After that, the scenario escalates: the mathematician bails Will out of jail under two conditions – that he will learn with him and have weekly psychology sessions. While the first condition thrills him, Will resents the second one and drives away any therapist assigned to him. That is until he is paired with a professional coming from the same disadvantaged neighborhood as Will.
As they start working on Will’s psychological problems, the protagonist meets the love of his life, Skylar, but struggles to connect with her on a deep emotional level. In addition, the main character is also pressured to pick up a highly paid academic career due to his talent. In the end, with the help of his therapist, Will realizes that he is ready to commit to a relationship and pursue what he wants, not what others expect of him, and leaves Boston to reunite with Skylar at Stanford.
Defense Mechanisms
One of the first and most apparent psychological theories that can be applied to the protagonist is the Freudian theory of defense mechanisms. This concept is explained as complex psychological strategies weaponized by one’s ego to protect itself from unpleasant stimuli. More specifically, Freud concluded that there are several defense mechanisms that people use to avoid harmful experiences.
If to examine what defense mechanisms are present in Will Hunting’s behavior, displacement, denial, and projection can be highlighted as the major ones. Firstly, it is essential to emphasize that his experience being an orphan resulted in him having severe abandonment issues. As it concerns displacement, it is generally regarded as a mechanism of redirecting strong emotional responses from the initial stimuli to other less threatening subjects. Will Hunting is a person who experienced adverse physical abuse in childhood (Ciocca et al., 2020). At that time, he was unable to resist his foster parents but still felt anger and frustration.
At present, he displaces this aggression onto random strangers who express any anger towards him, which results in severe beatings and, consequently, a prison sentence for Will. The impulsive anger he feels towards strangers is a displaced emotion he experienced towards his abusive parent. Secondly, Will Hunting exercises projection by the fear of commitment: in the past, he powerless and alone, left by his unknown biological parents (Ciocca et al., 2020). At present, he projects those feelings onto Skylar by thinking that she does not really love him and plans to leave him, just like his biological parents did.
Thirdly, one can argue that for the majority of the film’s duration, Will Hunting experiences the defense mechanism of denial. At this stage, a person avoids any mention of his trauma and pretends like the traumatic experiences never happened to shield his conscience from past events (Ciocca et al., 2020). It is especially evident when his therapist repeatedly states that it is not his fault that he is like that now – broken and non-committal. Will becomes aggressive and denies his internal guilt that, undoubtedly, has been the root problem in his relationships. Instead of admitting his psychological trauma and working through it, he proceeds to avoid it. Will is also unwilling to disclose his past to Skylar since he lies about having a lot of brothers throughout the movie and then becomes angry when she discovers the truth about being an orphan.
Attachment
The attachment theory, developed by Ainsworth, is another viable concept to examine Good Will Hunting. According to Ainsworth, the attachment theory explains various types of people’s behavior in interpersonal relationships, explicitly relating these types to the childhood experiences of parenting (Pepping et al., 2018). For instance, if a child has a loving and present mother, he is more likely to grow up with a secure attachment style, which will result in healthy relationships, trust in partners, and independence. Conversely, if a person grows up in an abusive household with a parent who is always absent or cruel, one is inclined to have trust issues and difficulties with a commitment since the first meaningful relationship they ever had were negative.
This theory easily translates into the experience of Will since he is an orphan who was brought up in abusive and uncaring foster families. Throughout the movie, it is mentioned multiple times that Will was physically and mentally abused by a father figure, specifically by showcasing his stab wound and indicating his constant inclinations to violence. Consequently, through this unhealthy parenting that Will experienced, he developed avoidant attachment. Due to this peculiarity, as an adult, he cannot trust others such as his therapist and girlfriend, has difficulties in believing that Skylar will not abandon him, and is always hesitant in intimacy. Pepping et al. (2018) claim, avoidant attachment style is one of the most driving forces behind abandonment and trust issues that Will evidently adopts. Thus, it can be argued that avoidant attachment is one of his most apparent issues in the movie.
Stages of Cognitive Development: Object Constancy
The third concept relevant to the investigation of Will Hunting’s psyche is Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, particularly the idea of object permanence. According to Piaget, the human development of infants is divided into particular and clearly defined stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational periods (Capella, 2016). During each phase, some crucially essential skills are developed to sustain children throughout their life, ultimately shaping behavior, intelligence, and set of abilities. For instance, during the first phase of the sensorimotor stage, a child learns how to be curious about the world, coordinate his/her senses, use simplistic language to make demands, and express dissatisfaction (Capella, 2016). Another vital aspect of the sensorimotor stage is the creation of object permanence. This concept explains how children understand that objects and people exist even when they are unable to see them. If this skill is not developed, infants think that, for instance, if their parental figure is not in sight, they do not exist anymore.
Although it is a fundamental human skill necessary for basic existence, it also has underlying implications for trauma creation that relate to the experiences of Will Hunting. Zivkovic (2020) claims that children whose sensorimotor development is disturbed by abuse and neglect suffer from the lack of object permanence. Although, as any mentally healthy adult, Will recognizes that people he does not see still exist, he feels an instinctive unease when the person he feels affectionate toward is not in close proximity. As Zivkovic (2020) finds, “Such violations may also restrict the development of object constancy, which may result in a lack of identity consolidation and affect the individual’s adult relationships” (p. 251). In simpler terms, infants with abusive parents develop object constancy. However, they unconsciously decide to slow the progress since they do not want to recognize that their abuser exists outside their sights, meaning that they are not only temporary but constant threat.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be argued that Good Will Hunting can be analyzed from the perspectives of three theories: Freudian defense mechanisms, Ainsworth’s attachment styles, and Piaget’s stages of development. Firstly, the protagonist employs a set of coping techniques to avoid the trauma of childhood abuse. Secondly, his fear of abandonment can be explained by his avoidant attachment style. Lastly, the tendency to distance himself from intimacy fits the theory of object constancy, as described by Piaget.
References
Capella, C. (2016). Disequilibrium and loss of narrative coherence in identity construction: A Piagetian perspective on trauma in adolescent victims of sexual abuse. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 30(4), 323-338.
Ciocca, G., Rossi, R., Collazzoni, A., Gorea, F., Vallaj, B., & Stratta, P. (2020). The impact of attachment styles and defense mechanisms on psychological distress in a non-clinical young adult sample: A path analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 273(1), 384-390.
Pepping, C., MacDonald, G., & Davis, P. (2018). Toward a psychology of singlehood: An attachment-theory perspective on long-term singlehood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(5), 324-331.
Zivkovic, A. (2020). Developmental trauma and the bad object: Attachment, identity, reenactments. Transactional Analysis Journal, 50(3), 251-265. Web.