Good Will Hunting

The movie Good Will Hunting exploits many points of psychology in the character Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT who has a knack for math. Some of the points of psychology include how a character develops after a lot of child abuse during his childhood. It exploits the idea that a child who becomes secluded may never allow an attachment, or when an attachment finally starts to occur, pushes them away. It also exploits the idea that Will Hunting has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Because of the post-traumatic stress disorder it seems that Will is unable to function normally in society, and because of this, carefully plans out his future as to not have to worry about encountering many people. The stress that Will Hunting endured in his childhood could have caused him several psychological obstacles to overcome. “Child psychologists believe that child abuse causes a much higher level of psychological disturbance such as violence, depression, and drug abuse” (Brown). Child abuse is a large part of the development of Will Hunting. It is revealed several times throughout the movie, especially in one particular scene where he reveals that his father used to come home drunk and ready to fight someone. He speaks of how he had to provoke his father into beating him so he wouldn’t beat his mother. “He used to just put a belt, a stick, and a wrench on the kitchen table and say, ‘Choose.’” (Sant, 1997) Will would say to his psychologist, Sean Maguire, when they spoke of his past and how he knew all about child abuse because he had first-hand experience in it. It was also mentioned that he had history with child abuse when he broke out into an anger fit when yelling at his girlfriend, Skylar, shouting at her about how he didn’t tell her the real stories because she didn’t want to know about his scars, and his history, and his father beating him and his mother, and about him going through foster homes and being an orphan. Throughout the movie, Will Hunting uses

References: Brown, J. (n.d.). The Effects of Child Abuse on Young Adults. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.unc.edu/~brownja/goodwillhuntingjab2.htm NCBI. (n.d.). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from Pubmed Health: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001923/ Sant, G. V. (Director). (1997). Good Will Hunting [Motion Picture].