Psychological Analysis

Cast Away

      

      My wonderful friend, Nikki Stone and I (Carly Taylor) watched the movie Cast Away the other night. All of the sudden a brilliant idea came to the both of us. At that very moment of enlightenment we decided coherently to do psychoanalysis on this fascinating movie. According to the American Psychoanalytic Association, the term psychoanalysis is essentially “a theory about the story of human beings, what motivates, inspires and sometimes cripples them, but it looks at these phenomena and tells a story from a unique perspective – “what lies beneath” the surface.” In our psychoanalysis of Cast Away we applied psychological concepts to the story of Chuck Noland in order to seek to explain his behavior. Concepts we mentioned include: motivation, drive-reduction theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, depression, psychosocial development stages, intimacy, and isolation.

Summary 

     Chuck Noland is a strict and hardworking man in his late 30s.  He works for a FedEx company and is constantly changing his schedule to accommodate for his job.  On Christmas Eve he got a page to ship some packages over seas.  He left his girlfriend, Kelly, and promised he would be back by New Years Eve.  Before he left he gave her a box with a ring in it and told her she could open it when he got back.  She gave him an antique pocket clock that was always set on Memphis time with his favorite picture of her on the inside.  During the plane ride, a bad storm came through that killed everyone on the plane except him.  He drifted in an emergency raft to an unknown small island.  He gathered all the FedEx boxes that washed to shore, wrote “help” in the sand, and started to break coconuts for food.  

      After a couple of days he spotted one of the men on the plane with him dead in the ocean.  He respectfully buried him on the island.  He would constantly look at the picture of Kelly in the clock.  One night at the top of the mountain on the island he discovered the light of a ship and tried to ride his raft to it.  The waves hit him back and he got seriously injured.  This made him determined to survive.  He began opening packages and using the items inside.  He used the blades of ice skates to help him cut things and the lining of a dress as fish nets.  He also took a volleyball and drew a face out of blood on it and named him Wilson.  He would not open one particular package with angel wings drawn on the front of it.  He began to track his location on the cave walls.  He also made a calendar and drew pictures of hands with faces in them.  He would also draw Kelly on the walls.  

      One night he was in so much pain from a giant mouth sore that he popped it and knocked himself out.  The scene then changed to four years later and a port-a-potty washes up to shore.  He begins to plan an escape from the island by keeping track of the tides.  It is revealed to us that he tried to hang himself but tested it once and knew that it would just lead to him being severely hurt so he decided not to go through with it.  Then one day, he writes, “Chuck Noland was here 1500 days.  Escaped to sea.  Tell Kelly Frears Memphis TN. I LOVE HER.”  Then he set off to sea in a boat he made out of logs and the port-a-potty which he drew the angel wings from the FedEx box on.  With him he brought his companion Wilson, empty coconuts to gather rainwater in, and the package with the wings on it.  Wilson falls off the boat during his voyage and he fights to swim and pull the boat to Wilson.  He did not have the strength and had to let Wilson go.  He just cries on his boat without any strength left and a cargo ship found him.  He then flies home to Memphis where many people including Stan, one of his old friends, celebrated his life.  

      Chuck comes to realize that Kelly has gotten married and had a daughter.  Her husband came and told Chuck that she was too confused to see him.  He continues to look at the picture of Kelly and decides to go see her at her house.  There, he gives the pocket clock back to Kelly.  He finds out that Kelly quit perusing her dreams of becoming a professor after the plane crash, that she had kept their car all these years, and that she had been tracking his location on a map she drew.  When Chuck is about to leave Kelly runs after him and professes her love for him.  He takes her back into the house and tells her to be with her family and goes to see Stan.  

      Chuck tells Stan that he understands Kelly’s situation.  He also tells him about his attempted suicide and that it frustrated him that he couldn’t kill himself the way he wanted to.  He realized he had power over nothing but somehow he had to keep on breathing even though all logic said he could not.  He also said he was so grateful that Kelly was always with him on the island (i.e. the picture of her) but was devastated that he lost her again returning to Memphis.  But he decided that he would do what he had been doing the past four years: to keep on breathing, “who knows what the tide could bring.” He delivers the package he never opened to the owner and left a note saying it saved his life.  Then the film ends with him standing in the middle of an intersection in the road looking at the different directions he could go because who knows what the tide could bring in next.

               

Concepts

      There are many psychological concepts in this film including motivation, depression, Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, and the need for relatedness.  Motivation is a desire for something that leads to a person being energized to obtain this desire.  A concept within motivation is the drive reduction theory.  This is when a person experiences some form of a deficit such as hunger that motivated the, to perform a behavior such as eat that will satisfy the deficit they have experienced.  According to Sigmund Freud who created this theory, all behavior is motivated and the purpose of our behavior is to satisfy our needs.   Also within motivation is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  It is a pyramid that starts at the base with Physiological needs (food and water), then safety needs (shelter), then belongingness and love needs, then esteem needs, then self-actualization needs (finding oneself), then lastly self-transcendence needs (“finding identity beyond oneself”) (Myers 330).  In order for each need to be met, the need before it must be satisfied. 

      Depression is a psychological disorder that is present within the film.  Depressions symptoms include difficulty concentrating or making decisions, decreased energy, feelings of helplessness, feelings of hopelessness, restlessness or irritability, loss of interest in hobbies or activities, “empty” feelings or anxiety, and thoughts or attempts of suicide.  Depression can lead to a constant feeling of hopelessness and despair. 

      Within Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development is the stage of intimacy vs. isolation in young adults.  The people in this stage struggle to find close relationships and gain the ability to intimately love.  If this desire is not met then they feel isolated; if it is met then they feel like they are in an intimate relationship.  Psychological needs include autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These types of needs are inherent in all humans. The movie best illustrates the psychological need for relatedness. Having a need for relatedness basically means that we humans want to feel connected to other people by developing and maintaining relationships with other people. When this social need is met people function best and it becomes easier to stay motivated.  According to Phycology Today, “evidence has been growing that when our need for social relationships is not met, we fall apart mentally and even physically. Some effects work subtly, through the exposure of multiple body systems to excess amounts of stress hormones. Yet the effects are distinct enough to be measured over time, so that unmet social needs take a serious toll on health, eroding our arteries, creating high blood pressure, and even undermining learning and memory.”

Relating 

      The movie accurately shows Chuck’s motivation.  For example, Chuck has to desire for love that could only be satisfied by Kelly, his girlfriend.  He tried to compensate for love and partially did with Wilson and the picture and drawings of Kelly.  But he knew the only way he could reach his desire for love was to be with Kelly, which motivated him to get off the island.  The movie also accurately portrayed drive reduction theory.  Chuck satisfies his drive for food with coconut, fish, and crabs and his drive for water with coconut milk and rainwater. Also, he satisfies his need for belongingness with Wilson.  The movie also shows an accurate picture of the hierarchy of needs.  His physiological needs are met with the food and water he obtains and his safety need is met with the cave he made himself at home with.  He met his need for belongingness with Wilson.  He has not met his esteem needs and therefor cannot meet any other needs on the hierarchy.  He feels like he is not in control of his own life, not even controlling how he dies.  He has not found out who he is just that he has to keep on breathing. 

      For the most part the movie accurately shows he has depression.  It did not show the signs of him having difficulty making decisions or decreased energy but all the other symptoms were met.  He felt helpless and that no one would help him because he knew he was out of range of the search for him; he even said, “I had power over nothing.”  He also felt very hopeless. He said, “I was never going to get off that island, I was going to die there totally alone.”  This shows that he lost all hope for ever getting off the island.  He was very irritable.  When he was frustrated he would throw and scream at inanimate objects. He also loss interest for his job and would no longer show emotions.  He felt empty because he knew that he would never have all of Kelly’s love.  He also attempted suicide by testing to see if he could hang himself.  

      As said before, Chuck is in the young adulthood stage of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development.  He has tried to find intimacy with many things but has failed every time.  He tried to find intimacy with Kelly but she got married to another man and was not with him on the island so therefore she was unable to give him the intimacy he desired.  He looked for intimacy also with Wilson but Wilson could not return love to Chuck.  He could not fill that empty space in Chuck’s heart.  Because each of these attempts for love failed, he felt isolated. Because of Chuck’s prolonged isolation, he experiences mental and physical breakdown. He goes crazy. For example, while alone on the island Chuck becomes disoriented, yells at inanimate objects and the island, makes irrational choices, draws a smiley face in blood on a volleyball, becomes emotionally tied to the volleyball, lost personal hygiene. These all could be effects of his isolation. The movie although did not accurately show all the effects of isolation.  He should not have been able to easily interact with people.  It would be something he had forgotten how to do over 4 years.  This would bring him stress and cause him to not normally interact.  In the movie we see that he is able to interact normally and without any stress.  

In Conclusion...
      Through this psychoanalysis of Tom Hank’s brilliant film, Cast Away, we were given a better understanding of human behavior and how powerfully it can be influenced by different environmental and biological factors. Chucks irregular or socially unacceptable behaviors were most likely induced by his extreme environment shift, loneliness, or his stage of life. For example, we could attribute Chuck’s attempted suicide to his depression brought upon by his lack of intimacy due to his desolate environment. This film has given us a greater has given understanding of the effects of motivation, depression, isolation, and other important concepts of psychology.


Sources:
Cassel, Elaine. "Psychology Resource Center for Students." Redirection to Equivalent @ Cengage.                              
      Cengage Learning.   Web. 18 Feb. 2012. <http://college.cengage.com/psychology/resources/  
      students/screen/screen_20010809.html>.      

Myers, David G. Myers' Psychology for AP. New York, NY: Worth, 2011. Print.

"Signs of Clinical Depression: Symptoms to Watch For." WebMD - Better Information.  Better Health. 

      Web. 18 Feb. 2012.. <http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/ detecting-depression>.