Discuss about the history of modern psychoanalytic thought.
The paper critically evaluates the characters of the movie “Three men and a baby”, where the central character is the baby and the importance is given to the men-baby relationship nexus. Therefore, an attempt is made to examine the nature of their relationship with the infant by using the relevant theories from the field of psychology, such as John Bowlby’s ‘attachment theory’, Erk Erikson’s ‘trust vs mistrust theory’, Harry Harlow’s theory and Sigmund Freud’s ‘theory of child and adolescent development’. At the same time, the paper explores the integration of the psychological theories and cinematic situations.
To start with, the paper uses the psychological theories and weaves them into the writing. It makes an attempt to relate the theories with the particular situations from the popular cinema, “Three men and a baby”. As it is known, the movie revolves around three doting and charming fathers, who worked strenuously to parent a few months old infant. In this piece, it is not indispensable to summarize the plot of the movie “Three men and a baby”. Without delving into the plot, the paper conceptualizes some significant theories and analyzes the central character (infant) by extrapolating the theories to the situations.
Erik Erikson adumbrated a theory of cognitive development that emphasizes the development of children in a predetermined fashion. Erikson’s theory of psychological development has eight varied stages. The first stage of development is regarded as ‘trust vs mistrust’ (Erikson, 2014). The first stage is indispensable, as it witnesses the gradual evolution of an infant from a new-born to a fledgling child. This is the nascent stage of child’s development, as during this time the trusting capacity of a child starts to develop. The child begins to develop faith in the service of the caretaker (parenting members), as he knows that his hunger for food will be satiated. At the same time, then the trust factor is depended on the quality and stable performance of the parenting members. As the child develops the trust factor, he feels more safe and comfortable, providing that he gets his food on time. The successful depiction of the stage (trust vs mistrust) is apparent in the movie, “Three men and a baby”. In the movie, the three men started to take an excellent care of the baby (like a mother substitute) and the baby began to grow faith in them. Consequently, the baby learned to trust them in the meantime.
Using the ‘attachment theory’, developed by the renowned psychologists John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, the paper dissects the parenting role of the three men and assesses its impact on the development of the child (“Three men and a baby”). The attachment theory unravels that the term ‘attachment’ is defined as an incessant psychological association with the most favorite person, who acts as an affectionate figure to the person. Likewise, an infant considers ‘mother’ the most doting and compassionate figure, as she nurtures the baby and gives him proper affection. Hence, the baby is inextricably linked with his mother through emotion. In the film, “Three men and a baby” the role of three men is instrumental in nourishing the infant and keeping the infant girl in a comfortable fold. Subsequently, the baby girl developed a ‘clinging factor’ and was greatly attached to the men. In the movie, the three men assumed the role of the ‘mother substitute’ and gave proper affection to the growing baby girl. Therefore, Bowlby’s ‘maternal attachment’ theory gets a new shape, as it supports ‘father affection’ over his counterpart (Goldberg et al., 2013).
By deploying ‘Harry Harlow’s theory’, the paper analyses three men and baby bonding in a detailed manner. The psychologist, Harry F. Harlow deliberated on the experiment with monkeys. They were isolated from their real mothers and were raised by the ‘surrogate mothers’. In the experiment, both wire mother and cloth mother were used. Even if the wire mother was the source of nourishment, the monkey developed a level of proximity with the cloth monkey. These infant monkeys were reared by the surrogate mothers until the time of adulthood. Using the Harlow’s theory of maternal separation, the paper assesses the role of the three men in nurturing the baby girl. In the movie, the baby girl was isolated from her mother in the first lap. In the second segment of the film, she was fondly raised by three men or (surrogate mother) and played the crucial role in the baby’s life. The baby started to develop a feeling of closeness for three men. A sense of attachment and bonding is encapsulated in the narrative. In the movie, three men worked tirelessly to win over the infant girl and replaced the place of ‘real mother’ with ease. Therefore, the theory of Harry Harlow can easily be related to the cinematic situation of the above-mentioned film, “Three men and a baby”.
The next theory, Sigmund Freud’s theory of childhood development plays a significant role in addressing the research issues. Freud’s theory of childhood development comprises five stages i.e. oral stage, anal stage, phallus stage, latency stage and the stage of puberty. The final stage leads to the smooth transition to the stage of adulthood. By using the base of the Freud’s theory, the paper examines the central character and its association with the peripheral characters of the movie, “Three men and a baby”. Freud’s theory of child’s development puts an emphasis on particular demand and requirements. The psychologist, Sigmund Freud reflects light on the psychosocial behavioral trend of human beings. He elucidates that at specific stages the individuals have specific needs that need to be accomplished. At any stage, the discontent of the child would lead to the onset of the mental disorder (Freud et al., 2015). In the movie, “Three men and a baby”, the baby girl started to whine, if she was abandoned by the parenting members. Therefore, the needs of the child should be satisfied, by giving her food. Otherwise, it might distort her development at any stage (Vaughan & Rodriguez, 2013). The peripheral characters (three men) worked strenuously to satisfy the needs of the baby, knowing the fact that they were the misfit in the role.
In the recent time, the film historians and essayists reflect on the psychological perspective of child-centric or women-centric films. The film, Three men and a Baby bears a psychological plot. The film revolves around a few months old baby, who is reared by three young bachelor men, living together in the United States of America. The film juxtaposes theories and practice. In the process, the filmmaker, Leonard Nimoy, scrupulously used and implemented the psychological theories (Erik Erikson’s theory, John Bowlby’s and Mary Ainsworth theory, Harry Harlow’s theory and Sigmund Freud’s theory of childhood development). By interpolating these fundamental psychological theories, the director of the film ‘Three men and a baby’ made it a sensational one (Vaughan & Rodriguez, 2013).
However, the most important psycho-social theory that was interestingly weaved into the film, Erik Erik’s theory ‘trust vs mistrust’. In many films, babies play significant plot devices, inasmuch they can spawn enough excitement and mirth. If Erik Erikson’s theory of ‘trust vs mistrust’ holds to be true, then the baby should not be left to the party-goers and rampant three bachelor men, as shown in the film ‘Three men and a baby’. However, the film takes an enthralling turn when the full-grown three adult men began to take a very good care of the baby. Sometimes, they even played more handsomely than the usual ‘mother figure’ (Mitchell & Black, 2016). These three men of the above-mentioned film nursed the baby extremely well, even better than her mother. Consequently, three men easily gained the confidence of the baby and she started to trust them. The baby became convinced of the fact that she would not remain hungry, as they would definitely feed her on time (Mitchell & Black, 2016). Therefore, the Erik Erikson’s theory of ‘trust vs mistrust’ is beautifully delineated in the film ‘Three men and a baby’.
At the same time, John Bowlby’s theory of attachment plays a crucial role in molding the central character (infant) in the film ‘Three men and a baby’. In the course of the film, the baby developed a strong sense of attachment for three men, who nursed her gently and gave her utmost affection. Subsequently, the baby developed a liaison with three men and responded to their affection with ease (Bowlby & Ainsworth, 2013).
Based on Harry Harlow’s theory of maternal separation, the director of the film brought in an interesting angle in it. The baby was separated from her mother in the first segment. Subsequently, she was reared by three men, who played the role of ‘surrogate mother’ (Versaci, 2016). At the same time, Sigmund Freud’s theory of childhood development was apparent in the film. The first stage or the oral stage was depicted, where the baby was seen suckling all possible soft items at the house (Otto & Keller, 2014). Bereft of the joy of the maternal satisfaction, the baby was left with three men. However, three men play a cardinal role in rearing the baby. Speaking briefly, the film bears a path-breaking plot, bolstered by psychological theories.
References
Bowlby, J., & Ainsworth, M. (2013). The origins of attachment theory.Attachment Theory: Social, Developmental, and Clinical Perspectives, 45.
Erikson, E. H. (2014). Erikson’s major works. Encyclopedia of Theory & Practice in Psychotherapy & Counseling, 166.
Freud, S., Marullo, R., & Einstein, A. (2015). RE-THINKING PSYCHOTHERAPY. Thinking about Thinking: Cognition, Science, and Psychotherapy, 221.
Goldberg, S., Muir, R., & Kerr, J. (2013). Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives. Routledge.
Mitchell, S. A., & Black, M. (2016). Freud and beyond: A history of modern psychoanalytic thought. Basic Books.
Otto, H., & Keller, H. (Eds.). (2014). Different faces of attachment: Cultural variations on a universal human need. Cambridge University Press.
Vaughan, M. D., & Rodriguez, E. M. (2013). The Influence of Erik Erikson on Positive Psychology Theory and Research. In Positive Psychology (pp. 231-245). Springer New York.
Versaci, R. (2016). Attachment performs: Framing attachment theory within the dramatic worldview. Drama Therapy Review, 2(2), 223-237.
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