A psychological view of the movie "Shrek?

A PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE MOVIE "Shrek?

Operation of the main characters in the film

Shrek is an ogre who lives in a swamp. He hates being disturbed and is very jealous of "privacy". One day is invaded by a group of characters in stories that have been evicted by Lord Farquaad, tyrant with aspirations to be king. Angry, Shrek goes to him to demand the return of your swamp, remove characters in stories and to recover his loneliness. In exchange for his swamp back, you must rescue Princess Fiona captive in a castle guarded by a dragon-fire launches. Shrek, accompanied by a talking donkey named Donkey, goes to the castle where the princess is captive and after running great adventures, he realizes that the world is not as bad as I thought, to find true friendship in the ass and love the princess to be rescued.

The characters to be analyzed are: Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

The main difference of this approach with other models is the value placed on the symptoms. The symptoms are the expression of a conflict, a way to communicate something that the subject can not express otherwise. Symptoms of anxiety-protected but somehow the cause and can mask their meaning. According to Freud, the symptom would be an attempt to heal itself. Not pursued, since eliminating the symptom, since doing so without regard to its meaning may involve producing a worse symptom substitution, or increase the suffering of the subject.

In the case of Shrek, we see a symptom manifested in their behavior when explicit desire to live alone and isolated from the world: "... I live in a swamp, I'm a scary ogre, what I have to do to get privacy. ..?. The symptom is expressing a conflict: the enormous need that feeling of being accepted by others. The symptom protects you from the anxiety caused by his abiding sense of rejection and abandonment by the rest of the world. Used as a defense antisocial attitude. It feels self-conscious and embarrassed about their appearance. The symptom hides an underlying conflict and internal states not openly, perhaps because he was unconscious for him. In order to overcome it and get a good mental health, it must resolve the symptom.

If we use the theory of the Triangles graphic-conceptual system developed by K. Menninger (1958), Malan (1963, 1976 and 1979) and Molnar (1984) - in the section on conflict, we envision:



Anxiety / Panic (A) Fenders (D)

Feelings of abandonment and rejection

Antisocial Attitude: solitude, independence, avoidance emotions hidden in the layers of onion



Need to be accepted by the other

Impulse or feeling

Hidden (I):

Donkey has a symptom that reflects their fear of being alone. Their behavior is of high emotional dependency, as shown when he says: "... I have no friends ... let me stay, please, please ...? and is expressed anxiety that produces the symptoms through their chatter, indulgence, flattery, to others, adaptation to the environment but not to stay alone in his background is not desirable, and so on. Like Shrek, he too is aware of the conflict: the fear of loneliness.

Princess Fiona, has a symptom expressed through behavior arrogant, proud, dominant, with a strong character and self-for example, when fighting alone Robin Hood and his archers and overcomes them. His anguish / anxiety is to discover his secret: Princess of the day (good looks) and ogre at night (looks horrible for her). Features a hidden feeling is to be herself and be accepted, without having to be ashamed of herself, thinks she's pretty, but in the end is also an ogre like Shrek.

Lord Farquaad, in this case the symptoms are clear: his despotic, arrogant and tyrannical behavior hides an inner conflict: sentimental inferiority, seen through the concealment of appearances: get on a bench, build a castle unrealistically high , etc ...

Rationalist Cognitive Perspective

In this perspective, rationality is health and disease, distortion and irrationality. In depression the person sees themselves, and future events negatively. In anxiety disorders tend to interpret certain situations as threatening or dangerous.

Shrek has a clearly irrational thoughts: "I'm just a selfish ogre ugly and stupid ... I'm better alone ...?. He understands that his appearance, he said ugly and horrible, do not make acceptable to the rest of the world and nobody can love. Therefore, behind multiple "layers? used as shields to protect themselves from the outside.

They are immersed in a vicious circle of wrong thoughts that are causing enormous emotional pain. These are irrational thoughts that cause you to feel abandoned and rejected permanently. His conduct to-treat others badly to be let alone "... my swamp is mine, mine and nobody else, and less than useless, pathetic ass ...?- is mountebank also result from these thoughts therefore do not really feel it to Donkey. You can only overcome this suffering if he can consciously substitute more reasonable. His mental processes have supremacy over their emotions, and tries to hide them isolated from the world and focusing on yourself.

Princess Fiona, who has been bewitched and change of appearance (of day is a princess and an ogre at night) has some thoughts similar to those of Shrek in the sense that if they find undesirable nocturnal appearance and rejected by all. To think that can be discovered when an ogre makes him suffer greatly. Based on the list presented by Beck cognitive errors (adapted by Feixas and Miro, 1993), we can identify conclusions, based on their perception that ugly people are reprehensible that applies itself without justification and assuming they can others think. When there is spell the end of the wedding and realizes that, despite not being a princess but a pretty ugly ogre, Shrek loves and accepts fully, begins to perceive the true facts and unbiased, ie that the fact of being ugly does not mean it can not be loved. Clearly seen that his thoughts were irrational and cognitive restructuring occurs making her happy.

Lord Farquaad, has some thoughts irrational thinking like a person better than others, which makes developing an arrogant behavior of tyranny to others and abuse of power. Through his thoughts of greatness, always understood that its approach is correct and true no matter the arguments of others. However, this thought lies unconscious emotional distress, ie, Lord Farquaad is not aware that actually has a major inferiority complex.

Donkey, as reflected above, presents a conflict of fear of loneliness, and from this perspective, irrational thinking is that Donkey is not anyone think for himself and needs to be accompanied to be somebody. To think that you can be alone causes much emotional distress, so that their behavior is flattering, fawning, compliant, and so on.

In the case of all characters, occurs in my opinion, following the list of irrational ideas (adapted from Ellis and Grieger, 1977), the presence of a matching irrational thinking for them all: how it is absolutely necessary to be loved and approved by the other almost at all times. And the overall rating given to themselves, their self-esteem and self-acceptance depends on the degree of approval that others give, expressed differently by each.

Therefore, the objectives of the cognitive-rational will:

Identification and modification of faulty thinking and correcting inappropriate behavior and knowledge of cognitive patterns that produce maladaptive ideas, evaluate the relevant situations in a realistic way to learn to perceive the real facts and not just the biased formulate alternative explanations Testing assumptions Generation ability to correct distortions

The therapist explained to the patient how their vicious circles so that they keep their symptoms. The patient can come to understand how they relate their thoughts wrong with the emotional pain in your specific case. Through some questions without conducting trials or sermons, the therapist explores the obvious and clear-symptom-in order to assess the patient's ability to detect, identify, differentiate and properly record their emotions, thoughts and situations, to the implicit and unconscious, schemas and automatic thoughts that must be changed. By direct modification of dysfunctional beliefs and schemas can achieve change.

Constructivist perspective (second line of cognitive therapy)

In constructivist theories, unlike the rationalist assumptions, there is no "right way" to see reality. The human being is not positioned reactively but proactively in relation to knowledge. Psychological disorders arise when the actual construction of certain situations and not be used to give meaning to the experience. According to Kelly, the person constructs his experience from the personal constructs, which are revised with experience. Keep them when they are being invalidated is the basis of psychological disorders. Have sufficient flexibility to review and generate alternative constructions is healthy. Guidano develops a theory that describes postmodern posracionalista four personal meaning organizations (PSOs), namely: the organization of depression, obsessive, and phobic of eating disorders. Posracionalista From this perspective, the change is understood from the integration of ego-dystonic or situations experienced by the patient strangely unrelated to a sense of continuity and coherence of self.

Princess Fiona, this is the character you think you can see more clearly the operation of this perspective. Fiona has revised its construction mental well based on their experience. Its meaning is that ugly people can not be loved is redefined with the experience when, after discovering that his real identity is that of an ogre and not a princess, but Shrek does not care and declares his love . Change has occurred, which is understood as a process that is taking place permanently in the life of every person, because in every moment we are giving meaning to each of our experiences.

Have you checked the meaning of its construct validation receiving no assumption that its not nice people can not physically be loved, and his experience has strengthened and validated the new construct. The meanings are reviewed especially when they do not receive validation, and strengthen and maintain when they are confirmed or validated by experience.

Shrek, something happens like Fiona, because it also assumes that it can not be liked by their appearance, ugly and horrible ogre, but when shown his love for Fiona emotions shown the need for change. Misinterprets a word he hears from Fiona and flees, but then rethinks the situation based on a conversation with Donkey and returns to find his beloved. At first, you can see how it works and is always used, ie, to shut out the world, which can be interpreted as a resistance to change and a way of self-protection. However, and based on the message he conveys Burro, which means a new experience for him, not be rejected as he felt by reviews its constructs Fiona once overruled by the experience, producing the change. Any change involves the reconstruction of meaning, whether the change takes place in the field behavior, cognitive or emotional.

Lord Farquaad, in my opinion, does not feel at any time the need for change, so it does not occur in any redefinition, insisting on its current construction led him to be devoured by it symbolically, and in the movie the Dragon. Therefore, in my opinion, this view would explain the operation of the character but on the opposite side.

Burro, we could say that their role, rather than reconstruction itself, is "a therapist? with Shrek and Fiona. In both there is a resistance to change because they prefer not to discard its nuclear construction as part of their identity and acts as protection for them. Donkey will help in the process. This role can be seen in various scenes, when Donkey discovers that Fiona is haunted: "... you look a bit like an ogre, and Shrek ..., you have many things in common ... why do not you tell ?...? Shrek Shrek tell the truth ...? (Burro) Shrek "...¿ ?...? (Fiona). Here Fiona begins to realize that perhaps his mental construction is not adequate. It is quite clear, but something is beginning to change. With respect to Shrek, it begins to rethink its construction after a conversation with Donkey and the following scene: "shut up and listen .. .. if you really try so bad why you come back? There you go again ... As with Fiona ... and she just made love you ... (Burro) and after a discussion of many insults, Shrek ends up apologizing to his friend and ask intrigued and interested ".. hear ...,¿ hummmm ... what was it that told you Fiona my ...? (Shrek).

Donkey, therefore making them a therapeutic stance as it occurs in this type of therapies, from expert to expert, in which Shrek and Fiona are owners of their own meanings and Donkey, although not a specialist in this type of tools symbolically act as such and helps them in self-exploration. As noted Neimeyer and Fexias (1997), co-venture into the search characterized by cooperation and respect towards a revision of the personal meanings.

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