For some, apathy comes naturally, as they are able to consciously suppress their emotions and excitement. Others mosey through it from time to time, quite by accident. And then, there are those who feel it constantly. The Disney/Pixar film touches on this possibly being linked to dramatic life changes being a potential cause. How true is that, though? Massive changes to emotional maturity, social interaction and personality development are often associated with drastic or traumatic lifetime events. This is especially true during childhood. To understand what’s going on in Reiley’s head; and subsequently, in ours, I’d like to explore it through the lens of developmental psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of the eight Psychosocial Stages. In a nutshell, each of the eight stages is part of a gradient, and each is comprised of psychological crises involving the “psychological needs of the individual conflicting with the needs of society.” The idea behind the theory is that successfully completing each stage should result in healthy development of personality and basic virtues. The stages are as follows: For time, we won’t be going through the entire chart as it relates to Reiley. Instead, we’ll reference it as needed. Further reading on the actual theory can be done [here].
Inside Out appears to take place right around the beginning of Reiley’s foray into stage 5, where she begins to question her identity, in order to discover what her role in adult society may be. She’s been uprooted from her former life, leading her to (albeit subtly, and through the dialog of the voices in her head) question how she feels about the various parts that make up who she is (i.e.: the islands of personality breaking down throughout the movie, and the rudimentary beginnings of abstract thought.). We see, throughout the entire movie, this psychological crisis play out in terms of various parts of “Imagination Land” being torn down and thrown into the memory dump, where all things psychological go to die…apparently. According to the movie, it seems as though the most traumatic events of Reiley’s life are: birth, the surprise move, and her decision to take a bus back to Minnesota. Statistically speaking, Reiley Andersen is one of the 40% of individuals lucky enough to have not experienced abuse or other difficult familial circumstance (i.e.: Foster care, sexually abusive family member, potential divorce, witnessing abusive behavior, etc…). Emotionally speaking I believe that this is why, before the movie is over, Reiley is able to bounce back emotionally from her jaunt into not caring. Throughout the movie it is suggested that if anything, including an emotion, falls into the memory dump, it’ll be lost forever. Had Joy not been able to escape the memory dump, and her and Sadness return to Headquarters, it stands to reason that the initial Apathy could have lead to fully blown depression. All individuals have periods of apathy, in which they lack passion and/or motivation, sometimes in reference to a particular task; other times, simply having a lack of emotional interest in anything. If left unchecked, it can affect an individual’s ability to maintain relationships and make healthy decisions. In individuals who have matured into the adolescent stage healthily, apathetic periods don’t tend to last very long, and they return to normal emotional and behavioral patterns. In terms of Reiley’s social interactions and personality development, there’s not as much evidence explored in the film. Considering her ease of establishing her personal identity by the end of the film without suffering role confusion (also known as an identity crisis, in which various lifestyles and identities are explored and potentially discarded), it seems likely that these two areas will be conquered successfully at some point in her near future. The greatest evidence for her social interactions improving include the hockey game shown at the end of the movie, and her “First Date” in the short film that accompanied the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Inside Out. These events indicate that, not only is she secure in her sense of identity, but also that she trusts her mental and physical changes enough to be able to devote her efforts to more than just herself; the beginnings of fidelity. When I first started writing this, I expected to point out all the ways in which Reiley could have been a victim of emotional withdrawal. Given the evidence and research, however, I discovered that in her psychosocial development patterns, a long stint of apathy for her would be implausible. Even considering the decisions made by Pixar for the sake of drama,-dropping Joy and Sadness off somewhere in long-term memory, supplying the villainous Bing-Bong [more on him in another article], and tossing Joy into the “memory dump” like the One Ring-if you’ll notice, Joy was never in any real danger. Yes, Joy fell into the memory dump with Bing-Bong. But, she immediately found the sadness-based core memory; which, supposedly had been there for a while, and Bing-Bong’s magic rocket which had been dropped in several hours before she fell in. Bing-Bong himself, however, began to fade almost immediately. Also notice how, as Joy and Bing-Bong search for a way to escape, they miraculously find everything they need in order for Joy (but not Bing-Bong) to make it back to the top of the cliff. It is my opinion that this is not convenience, nor is it a mistake. Reiley wants to be happy, and cares very deeply about finding a way to do so, not realizing at first that she needs to shed the burdens of imagined happiness. And so, Joy escapes because, simply, Reiley wanted to feel happy again. Granted, an imaginary boost can help from time to time (you know, “Fake it ‘till you make it, and all that”). Therefore, because she already had a successful development of personality in the first four stages, she had a healthy platform for when the fifth crisis of Psychosocial development began. She experienced something that all of us have experienced at least once in life; specifically, the desire to run away and start a new life, combined with emotional withdrawal from what we already believe(d) in the first place. This is a natural stage of our psychological development. And, through the movie, we are given a glimpse of the (fictional) inner workings of said development. Perhaps, for those of us who are parents and educators, this movie contains lessons about providing for a child’s natural psychological maturity than we may have previously believed. Psychosocial Development Chart: McLeod, S. A. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html
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AuthorLawrence Henry is an aspiring author with more caffeine than time. BTW, here's some of my thoughts on a few varied subjects. Archives
July 2023
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