Katie's Personality Development and Ego Defense Mechanisms in Scott Speer's Midnight Sun (2018): A Freudian Psychoanalytic Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36002/litera.v12i2.5847Keywords:
personality development, ego defense mechanisms, psychoanalytic criticism, Midnight Sun, Sigmund FreudAbstract
This study investigates Katie Price's personality development and ego defense mechanisms in Scott Speer's Midnight Sun (2018). The study aims to explain how Katie's personality develops through the interaction of the id, ego, and superego and to identify the ego defense mechanisms she employs in confronting Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), a rare genetic disorder that severely restricts her daily life. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design using content analysis. The data consisted of dialogues, monologues, and narrative scenes collected from the film and were analyzed using Sigmund Freud's theory of personality structure and Anna Freud's theory of ego defense mechanisms. The findings reveal that Katie's personality develops progressively from self-oriented emotional needs toward psychological maturity characterized by empathy, responsibility, and altruism. Her ego functions as a mediator that enables adaptive decision-making under constant physical and emotional limitations, while her superego develops into a moral force that encourages concern for the well-being of others. The analysis also identifies four dominant ego defense mechanisms, namely denial, rationalization, repression, and sublimation. The study demonstrates that psychoanalytic analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of how literary and cinematic characters construct psychological resilience when confronting chronic illness and contributes to the application of Freudian psychoanalytic theory in contemporary film studies.
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