Good Will Hunting Film Analysis

Good Will Hunting (1997), a popular and successful American movie directed by Gus Van Sant, is set in Boston, and the main character is a young man, Will, (Matt Damon) who is a genius brain and suffered trauma in his childhood. This movie describes the boy’s conflicts and the relationships among him and the people who surrounding him. It is interesting to examine how elements of psychoanalysis are used in this movie, including sublimation, projection, and repression. First, a primary example of the psychoanalysis element is the way Will uses sublimation in the film. When he was young, he was abandoned and abused by both his biological and foster parents, and was neglected by both families. Therefore, he found and used learning new things as his only salvation. When Sean (Robin Williams) asks Will who his best friends are, he answers that they are Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Frost, Kant, Pope, and Locke though they were deceased poets and writers. Since reading and learning were his several ways of escaping from his big trauma, the realizations about his abuse, this is a positive way of sublimation of a really negative series of happenings. Second, Will also uses projection as a defense mechanism. When his girlfriend, Skylar (Minnie Driver), want to know more about his past and family, and asks and pressures to him about
He hesitates to talk of his worst memories of neglect though his past and the worst memories of his neglect are probably clear. However, they make him emotionally and unconsciously weaker and weaker easily. Some researchers refers that some children who has trauma often experience feelings of shame and guilt about the traumatic event and may express fantasies about revenge and retribution (NCTSN, Par5). However, he was changed and saved by Sean’s repeated phrase, "It's not your fault." Also, thanks to not only the phrase, but also the relationship between them, Will could find peace on