If such a real person stood in front of us, how would we look at her, perhaps we can no longer use simple words to describe such a powerful mind. Dig deeper to understand the meaning more deeply.
There is no doubt that Liz has great power, which comes from her personality. Personality is a relatively stable and unique psychological behavior pattern formed by the interaction with the acquired social environment on the basis of the innate biological genetic quality. Mainly from the congenital heredity and acquired environment to analyze. The genes Liz received from her parents may not be outstanding, but judging from her ability to teach herself, her IQ should be at least above-average. According to the essence of ancient Chinese personality psychology thought, that is, Mencius' "Sexual Good Theory", Liz can be considered to be inherently good, so even if he grows up in such a harsh environment, he can get out of the mud without being stained.
From the perspective of Freud's personality structure, Liz's id, ego, and superego are in a state of balance most of the time. Unsatisfied with basic physical needs and feelings of love and security during childhood, she still maintains a deep love for her parents that governs her striving for the complete happiness of her family. She has a strong life instinct, even in the most desperate times, she did not give up, she still tried her best to live and strive for a better life. On the contrary, her companion showed more death instinct, lost confidence in life, and condoned herself to fall. But balance is relative, conflict is inevitable, and Liz is always filled with deep blues, lingering reality anxiety, and as she says, she has never felt any sense of security. This is where the self-defense mechanism kicks in. When he learned that his mother had AIDS, he denied that she would die one day, always believed that she would get better and go home, and then the family lived happily, avoiding the reality that made him suffer, and always being responsible for the behavior of his parents and I take comfort in rationalizing the explanation for not going to school myself. Later, learning to vent libido, relieved the pain caused by the death of the mother and the chaotic life, Freud called sublimation. There is no aspect of Liz's personality stagnation and regression in the film, but in the early stages, her instincts and sense of security were not satisfied, and there may be some aspects of personality stagnation. Their companions show oral sex characteristics, which cannot be separated from the nature of "sucking", demanding, relying on begging, and relying on the help of others to live, which is withdrawn and pessimistic.
From the point of view of the new psychoanalytic school, it seems to be more able to reveal the personality characteristics of Leeds. Adler pointed out that people have a common sense of inferiority. Leeds lacked normal life order since childhood, lacked parental care, everything at home was chaotic, and she could not keep her body clean. She was always spurned and ridiculed by everyone at school, which made her have a strong sense of inferiority and was even reluctant to go to school. It was not until later that she met a companion who had similar experiences with her and found a sense of belonging, and this sense of inferiority was weakened. Later, due to the ignorance brought by dropping out of school, she developed low self-esteem. "A sixteen-year-old is only at the level of eighth grade, and you will follow a downward spiral to a worse place. You cut every path and refuse. With every opportunity, you have disappointed everyone who once trusted you." However, this strong sense of inferiority has become her personality driving force, pushing her to work hard to overcome and pursue superiority. The superiority complex has never been far away from Leeds, and she is always full of love, rooted in her love for her parents, which in turn stems from early memories.
Early memories always influence the development of personality, and I was impressed by Liz's early memories. At the beginning of the film, Liz monologues, "I love my mom, very much. She's an addict, yes. And an alcoholic, often unconscious, schizophrenic. But I never forget her. She is Love me, even if she has forgotten. From beginning to end, from beginning to end". If it were us, maybe this love would be greatly reduced. What makes her love her mother so much, early memory plays a key role. "I remember sliding down the hill with my mom," she said in a narration. "It was winter, but her hand was warm. I was very young and she was healthy. That was a long time ago. Maybe it happened only once, maybe she turned away from me a thousand times, it doesn't matter." It was this kind of maternal love that Liz learned as a child, developed a solid love for her mother, developed Love for home and a more complete personality. For her father, Liz loves him equally. This more stable and good object relationship is thus established, and then internalized into a more stable and healthy self.
Among them, the creative self affects the degree of human activity, that is, the scope and form of personal activities. Adler believes that people are not passive recipients of hereditary effects and environmental influences. People have initiative and selectivity, and can creatively choose activities that suit their psychological development. Existentialism emphasizes the value of human existence and advocates that people have the freedom to choose their own life purpose and meaning of life. "At that moment, I understood that I had to make a choice. I could find all kinds of excuses for myself to bow down to life, or I could force myself to create a better life." Liz lies on her mother's coffin, determined to live a better life. "I'm really smart, I'm going to be successful, I just need the chance. It's like this, I need the chance to get out of the environment I was born in, the people around me are full of resentment, they live just to survive, but I believe there is A better place than that, where it's more developed, where I'm going to live, that's all." In stark contrast to the self-indulgence of his companions. We cannot escape life, but we can choose how to live.
Likewise, growing up in Leeds, we saw confusion and hesitation, the confusion of self-identity in adolescence. Leeds have had nowhere to go since the family split. Whether in the shelter or the wandering years with her mates, Liz is asking herself what kind of person I am and what I should do. When she stood on the roof overlooking the city, she felt lonely and helpless. When she visited Harvard and saw a different world and different people, she said, "Why can't it be someone like me, what's so special about them, because they were born? I try my best, no Let myself fall to the bottom of the society, what if, if I work harder?" Liz saw her life value from her studies, she belongs to the school. Self-identity is thus obtained.
Liz's growth has always been accompanied by anxiety, and we can see that she appears to have manifestations of situational neurosis, anxiety in specific difficult situations, which is a marked anxiety, and there is no basic anxiety. Horney's theory mentions that when there is a problem in the parent-child relationship, such as the inability of parents to give children true love, it will cause children to feel insecure. She calls such parental behaviors basic sins, and too many basic sins will lead to insecurity. Make children hostile to their parents, that is, basic hostility, leading to basic anxiety, and then develop into personality neurosis. Although Liz was not satisfied with love and security in her childhood, her personality was able to develop normally because of her early memory which prevented her from being hostile to her parents. But it made her feel lonely, and her spontaneity made her advocating positive freedom and being fully individualized. She accepts her past and embraces it. Liz said in his final speech: "Why do I feel sorry, this is my life. I even want to thank it, it makes me have to move forward in any situation. I have no way back, I can only stop Why can’t I do it?” Liz responded positively to her anxiety, saying: “I think some people just get discouraged by the hardships of life and waste their time on discouragement. Call it that. Annoyed, refused to see this dilemma with a comprehensive look." First of all, she adopted a positive cognitive strategy, looking at everything with a positive and inclusive eye. The second thing I have to mention is Leeds' activism, looking for something to fill his stomach when he is hungry; acquiring knowledge from an encyclopedia picked up from a rubbish heap without taking a few days of class; when wandering, relying on his own ability Feed yourself; actively strive for any opportunity for change. "No one can bargain with life, so as long as you live, you must work hard." Leeds spends time in non-stop action, which deserves our contemporaries to reflect on. Are we sometimes just dreaming, just anxious, ignoring action, and missing too many opportunities for growth.
In addition, I have to mention the social support, "social support system", namely "social network", refers to the material and spiritual sponsorship and solidarity that individuals can get in their own social network and from others . Good social support is beneficial to physical and mental health and lays a good foundation for future development. First of all, the United States has a good social security system, which guarantees Leeds' right to education. Even though the social workers' attitude towards Leeds is obviously very cold and separates her from her family, the society still provides shelter for Leeds. She can enter high school and apply for Harvard scholarship by her own ability. In the society we live in, such opportunities can be said to be rare. In addition, Leeds's high school teachers gave Leeds a good education, which also allowed her to grow. He gave Liz the opportunity to learn, mentored her in the nuances, and supported her. When Liz observed everything about Harvard curiously, he said: "We are ordinary people, and the people who go to Harvard are ordinary people." He encouraged her: "It takes effort, but it is not impossible." Such a society and environment make the physical and mental can develop better.
This growth experience has gradually formed a complete personality structure for Liz. From the perspective of Cartel's 16 personality traits, the following ones are perhaps more prominent. The scores for intelligence, stability, perseverance, sensitivity, anxiety, independence, and self-discipline may be higher, while the scores for assertiveness and excitability may be lower. Among the four temperament types, with the explicit personality we can see, it seems to show more features of depression and mucus, emotion, deep thinking, restraint, caution, gentleness, insecurity, calmness and so on. Perhaps some other type of personality trait has been repressed by environmental effects to form such a personality. Its psychology can flow in both directions forward and backward. Moving forward requires putting mental energy into external activities and changing oneself to adapt to the requirements of the environment. Liz said: "The world is turning, and you are just a speck of dust. The earth is still turning without you. The world will not change according to your will, because the will of others will be stronger than yours." So she tried her best to Change yourself to suit the environment. Regression in turn helps Liz gather and retain energy from the environment. Such ebbs and flows make people's inner world adjust and develop in a balanced way.
The real prototype of Liz in the film is a girl named Liz Muray, who was born in the slums of the Bronx, New York. In the fall of 2000, he was admitted to Harvard University. She left Harvard in 2003 to care for her ailing father and continued her studies at Columbia University, which is closer to her father, majoring in film. Her father died of AIDS in 2006. She eventually returned to Harvard in 2008 and graduated in June 2009 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. In August 2009 she enrolled in a graduate program at Harvard Summer School where she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology so that she could provide counseling initiatives for people from all walks of life.
Liz Muray's story has greatly shaken people's traditional view of innate determinism and environmental determinism. It teaches us that even in a hopeless environment, even in a fragmented and displaced childhood, a person can dream, choose, and therefore hope.
Finding light in the dark, such a process of ups and downs, has witnessed the great power of personality.
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