Alfred Adler S Personality Theory Final
Alfred Adler’s Personality Theory:
A Reflection on What Really Ate at Gilbert Grape
Johnathan Quach
University of California, Irvine
Alfred Adler’s Personality Theory:
A Reflection on What Really Ate at Gilbert Grape
Abstract
This essay aims to provide a psychological personality analysis of Gilbert Grape, the main character of the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, through Alfred Adler’s fulfillment theory. In his approach to personality psychology, Adler places great emphasis on the analysis of the individual’s personal experiences in interpreting their own personality. Throughout the movie Gilbert Grape describes of his experiences living in the town of Endora, where “nothing much ever happens and nothing much ever will.” With this gloomy outlook, Gilbert seemed destined and determined to live a monotonous existence in which there is little hope for anything more. Little that is, until he meets Becky, a refreshingly unique character who stumbles into Endora and shakes his world (and ultimately, his personality). In order to analyze and explore Gilbert Grape and what really ate at him, this essay will divulge into certain aspects of Adler’s theory including its peripheral personality types, its distinct developmental factors, and finally, the core tendency crucial to Adler’s view on personality.
Part One
Personality theorists use a myriad of theoretical approaches when attempting to define or understand different personalities. There is not one truly right or wrong theory and in Gilbert Grape’s case we can dissect and interpret his issues from many different angles. But I believe that Alfred Adler’s theory on personality connects with Gilbert in a way that strikes a chord with many individuals because of how commonsensical it is. Alfred Adler’s approach to personality illustrates that an individual’s personality is simply a reflection upon that individual’s lifestyle. A person’s lifestyle is his or her psychological makeup, or the
A Reflection on What Really Ate at Gilbert Grape
Johnathan Quach
University of California, Irvine
Alfred Adler’s Personality Theory:
A Reflection on What Really Ate at Gilbert Grape
Abstract
This essay aims to provide a psychological personality analysis of Gilbert Grape, the main character of the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, through Alfred Adler’s fulfillment theory. In his approach to personality psychology, Adler places great emphasis on the analysis of the individual’s personal experiences in interpreting their own personality. Throughout the movie Gilbert Grape describes of his experiences living in the town of Endora, where “nothing much ever happens and nothing much ever will.” With this gloomy outlook, Gilbert seemed destined and determined to live a monotonous existence in which there is little hope for anything more. Little that is, until he meets Becky, a refreshingly unique character who stumbles into Endora and shakes his world (and ultimately, his personality). In order to analyze and explore Gilbert Grape and what really ate at him, this essay will divulge into certain aspects of Adler’s theory including its peripheral personality types, its distinct developmental factors, and finally, the core tendency crucial to Adler’s view on personality.
Part One
Personality theorists use a myriad of theoretical approaches when attempting to define or understand different personalities. There is not one truly right or wrong theory and in Gilbert Grape’s case we can dissect and interpret his issues from many different angles. But I believe that Alfred Adler’s theory on personality connects with Gilbert in a way that strikes a chord with many individuals because of how commonsensical it is. Alfred Adler’s approach to personality illustrates that an individual’s personality is simply a reflection upon that individual’s lifestyle. A person’s lifestyle is his or her psychological makeup, or the