Good Will Hunting is not just a well-written script and well-executed film, it also presents a stunningly accurate example of a fictional case study of a patient, Will Hunting. In the film, the viewer is told a great deal about Will's dysfunctional past and the current ways in which he acts out. Thus, Will Hunting offers a great study for analysis, assessment and evaluation.
Professor D' Auria
Good Will Hunting Case Study
Case Description
In the film Good Will Hunting, the main character, Will Hunting, is a young man, whom is a genius, yet does not see his potential for something greater than living in an impoverished area of south Boston, working as a janitor at a prominent college in Boston, demonstrating aggressive, violent behavior, leading to troubles with the law. This is all partly due to an unhealthy living environment since Will was a child; being severely abused as a child, in and out of multiple foster homes throughout childhood, and inability to connect with others outside of his small group of friends (***e Sullivan, Morgan O'Mally, and Billy McBride). Will is discovered by a Fields Medal winning Professor (Prof. Gerald Lambeau) who eventually tries to assist Will in changing his life with the help of thisapist, Sean Maguire. Will finally agrees to get counseling to keep himself out of jail and meets a woman (Skylar) whom he connects with, yet he has difficulty allowing his feelings for Skylar to be present.
Throughout the movie, we see how Will struggles with his past by taking out his anger, frustration, and quick-witted comebacks on the people around him. In the film he slowly begins to see there may be more he is able to achieve with his life than what he is currently doing. however the film portrays Will as complacent with his blue-collar, run-in with the law life, and does not appear to want to reach his potential out of fear of the unknown.
The main supporting characters are Will's best friend, ***e, his other two friends, Morgan and Billy, Professor Lambeau, Therapist Sean, and Skylar, whom is Will's love interest. These supporting characters have different interactions with Will yet they all help shape some of Will's behaviors and ideas.
Critical Case Analysis Using Application of Theory
Throughout the duration of this course, a wide variety of theories were presented that could help explain Will's behaviors. Given the many set-backs that Will had to face alone in his life, the theories which best fit this case study are: systems theory, attachment theory, self-efficacy which is part of the social learning theories, and the strengths perspective.
In addition, when looking at the stage-based theories, which are primarily Freud's psychoanalytic theory and Erikson's psychosocial theory, Erikson's model is more applicable to Will. Will is twenty-one years old, and is Intimacy vs. Isolation Psychosocial developmental stage. Although Erikson's model is designed to describe the stages across an entire lifespan, these are no descriptions of Will's infancy or childhood, other than history of child abuse and grew up in foster care homes. For that reason, the infancy: trust vs. mistrust (birth to eighteen months), will not be applied. There is not enough information provided during that time period to be able to critically analyze Will's development. Industry vs. Inferiority (ages 6-11), Identity vs. Role Confusion (ages 12-18), and Intimacy vs. Isolation (ages 19-40), however, is applicable. The fourth stage, school age: industry vs. inferiority (six to eleven years) is the age in which the child begins school and while their social world expands (Salkind, N.J., 2005). During this stage, children are able to interact with people outside of their nuclear family and begin to show skills that include playing, cognition, working in groups, and emotional expression (Berzoff, J., 2011). Will appears to be very confident in himself and does not appear to have a problem speaking in front of groups, regarding philosophy, but is still unable to reach full potential. This supports the idea that he has been unable to successfully resolve the stage he was in, according to Erikson. Given that Will has shown proof that he had developed abnormal in the fourth stage, it can be assumed that he was not able to follow a normal development because every stage, beginning from birth, needed to be resolved successfully before being able to move on to the next stage (Thornburg, K.R., Ispa, J.M., Adams, A.M., and Lee, B.S., 1992). If an individual does not resolve a stage successfully, the individual's development will be compromised (Thornburg, K.R., et. al, 1992). Will shows abnormal signs of development, therefore leading to the thought that he has been unable to successfully resolve the previous stages. He does not appear to have healthy relationships outside of his circle of friends, there are signs of physical disruptions for instance the inability to form relationships.
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