Clarice Starling's Psychodynamic Theory

Personality is a socially and culturally constructed concept. In psychology, Personality refers to the complex network of emotions, cognitions and behaviours that provide coherence and direction to a person’s life. It influences our goals, how we feel, how we act and how we perceive ourselves and other people. There are various conceptions of personality, such as, the humanistic approach, trait theories and psychodynamic theory. Psychodynamic and Trait are the two approaches of personality theories that will be focused to interpret the selected character.
The Psychodynamic theory was proposed by Sigmund Freud. Freud (1900, 1905) developed a topographical model of the mind, whereby he described the features of the mind’s structure and function. Freud formed his theory of psychoanalysis by observing his patients and used it to treat mental disorders and he. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind. On the surface is consciousness, which comprises of those thoughts that are the focus of our attention now, and …show more content…
The chosen character intended for describing the personality in terms of these two psychological conception is Clarice Starling. Clarice Starling’s character from the movie, (The Silence of the Lambs), demonstrates a personality that can be observed with these theories. Clarice, an inexperienced although capable female FBI trainee, is used to interview and collect information from a brilliant captive serial murderer, Dr. Lecter. She is ordered to talk to Dr. Lecter by her boss, hoping that he leads them to another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who is killing women and making suits out of their skin. Finding she can only progress through trust, she allows DR. Lecter to get inside her head and expose her fears. When another victim is kidnapped, Clarice’s race is on to discover Buffalo Bill before he kills