The Evil Queen And Psychodynamic Perspective

As one of the most famous Disney villains, the Evil Queen from the well-known Snow White fairytale is not only known for her jealousy towards the innocent and pure Snow White, but also her wicked actions as a result of her hatred for her step-daughter. From simple deception to murder and then later dark magic, it seems that the Evil Queen knows no bounds when it comes to how far she is willing to go in order to reach her ultimate goal: becoming the fairest of them all. By using both the behavioral and psychodynamic perspectives of psychology to analyze the Evil Queen’s actions, behaviors and thoughts, we are able to question the Queen’s true nature: whether or not she truly was the cruel, evil old hag everyone believes her to be, or if she …show more content…
According to the DSM-5, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is defined as, “A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts,” and an individual must present 5 or more of several characteristics to be diagnosed. The behavioral perspective really comes in to play here, as being exposed to the positive of feelings of being known as the fairest, and having an entire kingdom at her fingertips in many ways corrupts the behavior of the Queen. According to Criterion 2, individuals with Narcissistic personality disorder, concern themselves with the idea of unlimited success, power and beauty to name a few. This is definitely the case with the Evil Queen, who loves power and needs to be the fairest of them all because she doesn’t want to let go of any of these things. This relates to several other criteria such as four, six and seven. Criterion 4 states that those afflicted with this disorder need excessive admiration. The Queen needs to be told several times by a fantasy mirror, that she is beautiful in order to feel satisfied with her physical standing. As a result, she takes advantage of other people in order to advance her own interests of maintaining her beauty and power which to her acts as reward, fulfilling criterion 6. First, she takes advantage of the King’s love for her in order to seduce him and then murders him so she can gain control of the kingdom. Further, she disguises herself as an old lady, in order to exploit Snow White’s pure heart and convince her to eat the poisoned apple, so that the Queen could kill the only thing standing in her way of becoming the fairest of them all. Lastly, she fulfills criterion seven through her treatment of her subjects.