Performance of the main characters of the film
Shrek He is an ogre who lives in a swamp. He hates being bothered and is very jealous of “his privacy from him” from him. One day he finds himself invaded by a group of storybook characters who have been evicted by lord farquaad, tyrant with aspirations to be king. Angry, Shrek goes to see him to demand that he return his swamp, remove the characters from the stories and be able to recover his solitude. In exchange for returning his swamp, he must rescue princess fiona prisoner in a castle guarded by a fire-throwing dragon. Shrek, accompanied by a talking donkey named Donkey, He goes to the castle, where the princess has been captive and after running great adventures, he realizes that the world is not as bad as he thought, finding sincere friendship in the donkey and love in the princess that he had to rescue.
The characters to analyze are: Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad.
Psychoanalytic perspective
The main difference of this perspective with other models is the value given to symptoms. The symptoms are the expression of a conflict, a way of communicating something that the subject cannot express otherwise. The symptoms protect against anxiety –even if they provoke it in some way and may mask its meaning-. According to Freud, the symptom would be an attempt at self-healing. Therefore, the elimination of the symptom is not pursued, since doing this without paying attention to its meaning may mean producing a worse one –replacing the symptom- or increasing the suffering of the subject.
In the case of ShrekWe can appreciate a symptom manifested in his behavior when he makes explicit his desire to live alone and isolated from the world: “…I live in a swamp, I am a terrifying ogre, what will I have to do to get intimacy…”. The symptom is expressing a conflict: the enormous need you feel to be accepted by others. The symptom protects you from the anxiety caused by your permanent feeling of rejection and abandonment by the rest of the world. She uses his antisocial attitude as a defense. He feels self-conscious and embarrassed by his appearance. The symptom hides an underlying and internal conflict that he does not openly manifest, perhaps because it is unconscious for him. In order to overcome it and achieve good mental health, you must resolve the symptom.
Donkey, presents a symptom that reflects his fear of being alone. His conduct is high emotional dependence, as can be seen when he says: “…I don’t have friends…let me stay, please, please…” and the anguish caused by the symptom is expressed through his chatter, complacency , flattery to others, adaptation to the environment so as not to be left alone even if deep down it is not desirable, etc. Like Shrek, he is also unaware of his conflict: the fear of loneliness.
Princess Fionapresents a symptom expressed through a arrogant, proud, dominant behavior, with a strong and self-sufficient character –for example, when she alone fights against Robin Hood and his archers and defeats them-. Her anguish/her anxiety is that they discover hers her secret: princess by day (good looks) and ogre by night (horrible appearance to her). She presents a hidden feeling that is to be able to be herself and be accepted, without having to be ashamed of herself, she thinks that she is pretty, although in the end she is also an ogre like Shrek.
lord farquaadin this case the symptom is clear: his despotarrogant and tyrannical behavior hides an internal conflict: sunderstanding of inferioritywhich is seen through the concealment of appearances: he climbs on a sidewalk, builds an exaggeratedly high castle, etc…
Cognitive-Rationalist Perspective
In this perspective, health is rationality and disease, distortion and irrationality. In depression the person sees himself, events and the future in a negative way. In anxiety disorders there is a tendency to interpret certain specific situations as threatening or dangerous.
Shrek presents clearly irrational thoughts: “I’m just an ugly and stupid selfish ogre…I’m better off alone…”. He understands that His appearance, according to him ugly and horrible, does not make him acceptable to the rest of the world and that no one can love him. For this reason, it hides behind multiple “layers” that it uses as armor to protect itself from the outside.
They are immersed in a vicious circle of wrong thoughts that are causing enormous emotional suffering. These irrational thoughts are what cause you to feel permanently abandoned and rejected. His behavior -treating others badly so that they leave him alone “…my swamp is mine, mine and no one else’s, and less than a useless, pathetic and charlatan donkey…”- is also a consequence of these thoughts, Well, he doesn’t really feel this towards Donkey. He will only be able to overcome this suffering if he consciously manages to replace them with more reasonable ones. His thought processes have supremacy over his emotions, and he tries to hide them by isolating himself from the world and focusing on himself.
Princess Fiona, who has been bewitched and changes her appearance (by day she is a princess and by night an ogre) has thoughts similar to those of Shrek in the sense that if they discover her nocturnal appearance she will be undesirable and rejected by all. The thought that she can be discovered when she is an ogre makes her suffer greatly. Based on the List of cognitive errors presented by Beck (adapted by Feixas and Miró, 1993), we can identify hasty conclusions, based on her perception that ugly people are rejectable that she applies to herself without justification and assuming what others may think. When the spell ends at the wedding and she realizes that, despite not being a pretty princess but an ugly ogress, Shrek loves her and fully accepts her, she begins to perceive the real and unbiased facts, that is to say , that the fact of being ugly does not mean that it cannot be loved. She clearly perceives that her thoughts were irrational and a cognitive restructuring occurs, making her happy.
lord farquaadpresents some irrational thoughts thinking of yourself as a better person than others, which makes him develop arrogant behavior, tyranny towards others and abuse of power. Through his grandiose thoughts, understands at all times that his criteria is correct and true, not caring about the arguments of others. However, this thought hides an unconscious emotional suffering, that is, Lord Farquaad is not aware that he really has a significant inferiority complex.
Donkeyas reflected above, presents a conflict of fear of loneliness, and from this perspective, Burro’s irrational thought consists in that he thinks that he is nobody by himself and that he needs to be accompanied to be someone. Thinking that he can be left alone causes him a lot of emotional suffering, so his behavior is flattering, flattering, accommodating, etc.
In the case of all the charactersIn my opinion, following the list of irrational ideas (adapted from Ellis and Grieger, 1977), the presence of a coincident irrational thought occurs for all of them: how it is absolutely necessary to be loved and approved by others almost at all times. And the global qualification that they give themselves, their self-assessment and self-acceptance depend on the degree of approval that others give them, expressed in a different way by each one of them.
Therefore, the objectives of the cognitive-rational therapy will be:
Identification and modification of wrong thoughts and inappropriate behavior
Knowledge and correction of cognitive patterns that produce maladaptive ideas
Assess relevant situations realistically
Learn to perceive the real facts and not just the biased ones
formulate alternative explanations
test the assumptions
Generation of skills to correct distortions
The therapist will explain to the patient how do their vicious circles work so they maintain their symptoms. The patient can come to understand how his wrong thoughts are related to emotional suffering in his specific case. Through some questions, without making judgments or preaching, the therapist delves into the obvious and evident -symptoms- in order to assess the patient’s ability to detect, identify, differentiate and adequately register their emotions, thoughts and situations, until the implicit and non-conscious – automatic schemes and thoughts that must be changed. Through the direct modification of the beliefs and the dysfunctional schemes we will be able to achieve the change.
Constructivist perspective (second line of cognitive therapy)
In constructivist theories, unlike rationalist postulates, there is no “right way” to see reality. The human being is not positioned in a reactive way but in a proactive way in relation to knowledge. Psychological disorders arise when the current construction of certain situations no longer serves to give meaning to the lived experience. According to Kelly, the person builds his experience from personal constructs, which are reviewed with experience. Maintaining them when they are being invalidated forms the basis of psychological disorders. Having enough flexibility to review them and generate alternative builds is healthy. Guidano develops a postmodern and postrationalist theory that describes four organizations of personal meaning (OSP); namely: the depressive, obsessive, phobic and eating disorders organization. From this postrationalist perspective, change is understood from the integration of egodystonic situations or situations experienced strangely by the patient, alien to a perception of continuity and coherence of the self.
Princess Fiona, this is the character in which I think you can see more clearly the operation of this perspective. Fiona has perfectly revised her mental construct based on her experience. His meaning that ugly people cannot be loved is resignified with the experience when, once she discovers that her real identity is that of an ogre and not that of a princess, but Shrek doesn’t care and declares his love for her. The change has taken place, which is understood as a process that is taking place permanently in the life of each person, since at all times we are giving meaning to each of our experiences.
She has revised the meaning of her construct, as her assumption that physically unpleasing people cannot be liked has not received validation, and her experience has strengthened her and validated the new construct. The meanings are revised especially when they do not receive validation, and they are strengthened and maintained when they are confirmed or validated in the experience.
ShrekSomething similar happens to Fiona, since he himself also assumes that he cannot be loved because of his appearance, ugly and horrible ogre, but when his love for Fiona appears -emotions- the need for change appears. He misinterprets some words he hears from…