The Psychodynamic Theory of Walter White
Introduction
Walter White also known as “Heisenberg” is the main character from the television show, “Breaking Bad”. Walt was a great chemist who contributed research to a Nobel-Prize winning experiment and co-founded the company Gray Matter Technologies with his friend Elliott Schwartz and girlfriend Gretchen. Walt later left Gray Matter which eventually went on to become a multi-billion-dollar company which greatly profited from Walt’s previous work, leaving Walt bitter towards the two. Walt met his wife Skyler, where they both moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and had their first child Walter Jr. Walt went on to become a chemistry teacher at JP Wynne High School. Financially, this job was not enough …show more content…
Psychodynamic theories claim that behavior is controlled by unconscious forces of which the person is unaware (Dozois, 2015). The psychodynamic theory believes that personality has three elements, the id, ego, and super-ego. The first being the id; The id consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth representing the unconscious biological drives for food, sex, and other necessities. The id is also concerned with instant pleasure or gratification. The second is the ego, which develops early in a person’s life. The ego compensates for the demands of the id by guiding an individual’s actions or behaviors to keep them within the boundaries of society. The ego is the decision-making component of personality. The third element is the super-ego. The superego develops as a person incorporates the moral standards and values of others. The superego serves to pass judgment on the behavior and actions of …show more content…
He shows normal and appropriate emotional responses to every situation, he feels empathy, remorse, internal conflicts, and desperation. These emotions soon fade and eventually, he gets to the point where he doesn't mind hurting people, although Walt is not a sadist, because we never once see him take pleasure when harming others. His love and drive to care for his family was his main goal but he took it farther, ignoring laws and his own moral principles for the good of his family, and himself. As Walt becomes “Heisenberg” he shows characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder; which is described as an individual has a distorted self-image, unstable and intense emotions, preoccupied with, power, and has an exaggerated sense of superiority. Traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorder that Walt exhibits include the following: insatiable appetite for the attention of other people, extreme feelings of jealousy (e.g., When Jesse and Mike begin spending time together, as Mike is helping Jesse with his drug addiction, Walt assumes they are doing this to get to him) behaving as if they deserve special treatment, responding to criticism with anger, humiliation, and shame, etc. (Nordqvist,
Introduction
Walter White also known as “Heisenberg” is the main character from the television show, “Breaking Bad”. Walt was a great chemist who contributed research to a Nobel-Prize winning experiment and co-founded the company Gray Matter Technologies with his friend Elliott Schwartz and girlfriend Gretchen. Walt later left Gray Matter which eventually went on to become a multi-billion-dollar company which greatly profited from Walt’s previous work, leaving Walt bitter towards the two. Walt met his wife Skyler, where they both moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and had their first child Walter Jr. Walt went on to become a chemistry teacher at JP Wynne High School. Financially, this job was not enough …show more content…
Psychodynamic theories claim that behavior is controlled by unconscious forces of which the person is unaware (Dozois, 2015). The psychodynamic theory believes that personality has three elements, the id, ego, and super-ego. The first being the id; The id consists of all the inherited components of personality present at birth representing the unconscious biological drives for food, sex, and other necessities. The id is also concerned with instant pleasure or gratification. The second is the ego, which develops early in a person’s life. The ego compensates for the demands of the id by guiding an individual’s actions or behaviors to keep them within the boundaries of society. The ego is the decision-making component of personality. The third element is the super-ego. The superego develops as a person incorporates the moral standards and values of others. The superego serves to pass judgment on the behavior and actions of …show more content…
He shows normal and appropriate emotional responses to every situation, he feels empathy, remorse, internal conflicts, and desperation. These emotions soon fade and eventually, he gets to the point where he doesn't mind hurting people, although Walt is not a sadist, because we never once see him take pleasure when harming others. His love and drive to care for his family was his main goal but he took it farther, ignoring laws and his own moral principles for the good of his family, and himself. As Walt becomes “Heisenberg” he shows characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder; which is described as an individual has a distorted self-image, unstable and intense emotions, preoccupied with, power, and has an exaggerated sense of superiority. Traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorder that Walt exhibits include the following: insatiable appetite for the attention of other people, extreme feelings of jealousy (e.g., When Jesse and Mike begin spending time together, as Mike is helping Jesse with his drug addiction, Walt assumes they are doing this to get to him) behaving as if they deserve special treatment, responding to criticism with anger, humiliation, and shame, etc. (Nordqvist,