Ponyo Film Analysis and Psychoanalysis: Attachment and Relationships

so I just watched Ponyo for the first time the other night I don't know why I waited so long to watch this movie but sing the movie for the first time was incredible the Whimsical nature of the film the artwork and The Lovable characters make this movie an instant classic as I was watching the movie I noticed that there were some not so subtle Dynamics between characters and I realized this movie isn't just a beautiful film about a fish that loves him Ponyo is a film that looks at how we attach and relate to other people before we jump into the film analysis let's look at a widely used psychological theory that'll help us understand a major theme in the movie attachment attachment theory is a framework for understanding interpersonal relationships and more specifically how our early childhood experiences impact our relationships with other people attachment theory was developed by John Bowlby and further expounded by Mary einsworth bolby argued that the way we interact with our early caregivers typically parents has a profound impact on the way that we conceptualize relationships when we're infants we find ourselves in a tricky situation we absolutely must have someone to take care of us we are dependent upon our caregivers we must be fed changed made to feel safe and most importantly loved when caregivers are able to respond to the needs of infants and make sure they feel safe and are loved infants develop secure attachment to others not only do they develop secure attachment to others but according to Dr Bessel Van Der kolk in his book the body keeps the score they develop secure attachment to themselves however when our needs are not met we don't feel safe and we do not receive the love that we need we develop an insecure attachment to others not only can we develop an insecure attachment Style with others but we may develop insecure attachments to ourselves a mother or father who is unable to sufficiently care for their infant either because they are in an abusive relationship or they're emotionally unavailable may leave an infant to constantly seek the affection of others and develop a self-concept that they are undeserving of love y believe that when caregivers are attentive and responsive to the needs of children children can develop a sense of security and disallows the child to explore the world with a secure base this can go awry when parents aren't able to give their children the sense of security that they need this leads the child to develop an insecure attachment Style insecure attachments lead children to have negative perceptions about self others the world or a combination of these things bolby distinguished between secure and insecure attachments Mary einsworth later expounded upon these attachment styles to further differentiate between different insecure attachment Styles Ainsworth developed a study that allowed her to examine attachment directly unsworth's strange situation was a study in which infants and mothers were observed mothers left their infants for a short time period the way that the infants reacted to their mother leaving and returning allowed Ainsworth to make an inference regarding the attachment style of the child for example if the infant cried when their mother left but were able to be soothed by their mother when they returned the infant had a secure attachment style the infant is distressed by their caregiver leaving however when the caregiver returns they understand that all is well and they're safe in the arms of their mother in contrast if an infant does not cry when their mother leaves and pays little attention to the mother Upon returning this is indicative of an insecure attachment Style einsworth elaborated upon insecure attachment to fragment the concept into two different insecure attachment Styles avoidant and ambivalent resistant third insecure attachment style was later identified fearful these insecure attachment Styles have been termed preoccupied for ambivalent resistant detached for avoidant and disorganized for fearful this leaves us with four distinct attachment Styles secure preoccupied detached and disorganized when children reach adulthood the attachment style they're developed as an infant reveals its consequences within their relationships with themselves and other individuals adults with a secure attachment style typically have good feelings about themselves and others and they're able to navigate relationships relatively well adults with a preoccupied attachment style find themselves constantly seeking affection and reassurance from others as they typically have negative views of itself and don't believe they're worthy of love this attachment style May develop from inconsistent attention from caregivers and a feeling that needs were not met during infancy in childhood adults with a detached attachment style typically have a positive view of themselves but not of others this leads to the belief that others can't be trusted and a strong desire to rely on oneself within relationship this may result in closed off emotions and an inability to develop strong and secure bonds with friends or loved ones detached attachment styles are the result of childhood experiences where emotions were not tolerated and children were expected to be strong tough and independent emotionally distant parents result in children with poor emotion regulation who can't tolerate their own emotions the last insecure attachment style is disorganized this insecure attachment style is the most detrimental and secure attachment style and results from parents who are abusive towards their children the caregiver who is supposed to be a source of safety and love becomes a source of fear to the child these negative childhood experiences result in adults with inconsistent attachment behaviors adults with a disorganized attachment style May lack the ability to trust others creating barriers when trying to establish genuine connection with others however what differentiates disorganized adults from detached is that they desperately seek genuine connection with others this results in a combination of preoccupied and detached attachment styles as these individuals desperately seek connection and safety yet they're too afraid and untrustworthy to develop the connections they so desperately crave now that we have a basic understanding of attachment Styles let's look at how these are represented in Ponyo we'll first start with Ponyo when we look at the main caregiver for Ponyo her father we see an overprotective overbearing and anxious caregiver ponyo's father is constantly trying to restrict her actions and literally keeps her within a bubble while he may believe he is keeping her safe from the outside world it is establishing an insecure attachment style within Ponyo this type of caregiver which is also the archetype of the devouring mother which I've talked about in my Spirited Away analysis video is overbearing and seeks to remove their children from experiencing the reality of the world overprotective caregivers produce a preoccupied or anxious attachment style for children you might think that overprotective parents shower their children with love and security so this means that the child would have a secure attachment style right however when parents are overprotective and constantly restricted their children from the world this may be the result of an inadequate relationship that the parent has the parent may not be receiving the love that they need so they focus all their attention on the child this results in a role reversal where children become the source of love and safety for their parents the parent becomes anxious and clingy creating a child that develops feelings of relationship anxiety and clings themselves in the movie we don't see ponyo's mother until the end of the movie though we see her father at the very beginning we can assume that ponyo's father doesn't see his wife often and thus turns to his children to soothe his anxiety and to give him security now let's turn to sosuke and examine his relationship with his mother sosuke is an independent young man and we only see him with his mother not his father we quickly learned that his parents are together however his dad is out to sea and we can assume he doesn't return home very often when we look at the way that sosuke's mother treats him we see that she's affectionate but at times can be emotionally absent in particular when she expects sosuke's father to come home and he has to remain on his ship we can see that she becomes enraged and argues with his father while on the phone she grabs what looks to be beer and becomes extremely despondent to sosuke and angry with her husband of course she bounces back and tells sosuke everything will be okay however sosuke does have to contend with a mother who is emotionally distraught leaving him to take on the role of caregiver when children undergo parentification or having the role of parent and child flip-flopped this doesn't allow themselves to have their needs met they may have to contend with strong emotions without a safe person to do this with this may result in sosuke's inability to explore his own strong emotions in a safe and secure way so far Ponyo and sosuke both seem to be doomed to poor relationships as they age and mature however we could have a much more optimistic Outlook based on the ending in the movie Ponyo is able to stay with sosuke if they both Express true love for one another well what does that mean after all they both just agree that they love each other and Ponyo was able to remain with sosuke though if we look at the relationship the Ponyo and sosuke have throughout the movie we can see that their words were far less important than their actions Ponyo comes from a family with an overbearing parent she's trapped within his bubble literally any exploration is strictly forbidden now let's compare that with how sosuke treats Ponyo he does protect her when she's small and needs the safety of sosuke's bucket however if she grows and matures she is able to explore the outside world with sosuke sosuke doesn't confine her to his bucket in hopes that she'll never leave him he gives her the freedom that she desperately needs while still being a safe place for her to return to when she needs him sosuke is able to fulfill the role of caregiver for Ponyo however he isn't forced to do it he chooses of his own free will later in the movie sosuke is able to express himself and cry when he can't find his mother Ponyo provides the security and love that sosuke needs to be able to express himself and put down any facade of a tough protector Ponyo and sosuke both are able to explore themselves and the world while still having their needs met and feeling the safety that children need to develop a secure attachment Style with Ponyo and sosuke able to overcome their insecure attachment they can remain together and not only say that they truly love each other but demonstrate it through overcoming their trauma and developing a secure attachment to one another

Channel: CrispyAirplane

Views: 8,838

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Id: WwxjTFuaS3s

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 12 2022