Inside Out: Rivera & Doctor

Inside Out (Rivera & Doctor, 2015) is a film that has many interpretations, dimensions and perspectives in terms of how the audience understands the interactions of the characters, and the plot of the movie. Inside Out (Rivera & Doctor, 2015) makes assumptions of how the mind works, and thus this essay will investigate the consistencies and inconsistencies between the portrayal of the mind in the film and the basic philosophies of two theories. These two theories compared are, the Psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud in the aspects of instincts, the id, ego, super ego, and the unconscious and the significance of its relations with the conscious (Guntrip, 2008; Elliot, 2015), and the theoretical backings of Emotion-focused therapy by Leslie
The idea that each emotion is personified into a character and directs a certain aspect of Riley’s mind (Rivera & Doctor, 2015) is consistent with Emotion-focused therapy, which states that every emotion has an embedded need and serves as directors (Psychotherapy Expert Talks, 2016). The Emotion-focused therapy accentuates distinctions between emotions such as primary versus secondary and adaptive versus maladaptive (Greensberg, 2006). This point is consistent with Inside Out, where the primary emotions can be interpreted to be the Emotion characters, namely Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, while the feelings experienced by the Emotion characters such as Joy realizing that Riley needs Sadness in order to function properly, Sadness trying to comfort Bing Bong due to feeling guilty for ruining the core memories, and Fear, Anger, Disgust feeling guilty for suggesting that Riley should run away (Rivera & Doctor,
Joy can be said to be the ego, it is clear from the start of the film that Joy is the leader and moderator, making sure that the core memories are intact, making sure that most of the new memories formed by Riley are those of hers (Rivera & Doctor, 2015). Most importantly, the ego is in charge of the regulation of the personality (Corey, 2015) or in Inside Out, the other emotions. This is shown through Joy telling each emotion what to do for Riley’s first day of school, the management of daydreams and control of Riley’s dreams on the first night that she sleeps at her new house (Rivera & Doctor, 2015). The leader role for Joy is further emphasized by the fact that when both Joy and Sadness are thrown out into long term memory storage, Joy finds directions and sets out the priorities for both emotions (Rivera & Doctor, 2015). Anger can be said to be the id, the id is unable to condone tension (Corey, 2015), is demanding, and acts impulsively such as pushing Riley to steal a credit card from her mother and eventually being the character to give Riley the suggestion to run away from home. Nevertheless, with the notion previously stated that the Emotion characters are part of the conscious part of Riley’s mind, Joy managing dreams and Anger as the