Psychoanalytic Assessment of Peter Griffin

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Kendrick Benjamin AP Psychology 5-17-12 Psychoanalytic Assessment of Peter Griffin Psychoanalytical Perspective Peter Griffin the father in “Family Guy” is an idiotic, vulgar, disrespectful simpleton of Quahog, Rhode Island, and he is completely oblivious to the “normal” ways of the world. Peter is the best example of a person who fails to deny the temptations of their id. Whenever he wants something regardless of his financial situation he obtains it. An example is Peter discusses with Lois that he desires a new pet so he goes out and gets a brain damaged horse. He saw it was cheap and couldn’t resist getting it, ignoring the fact that a horse is not a standard house pet let alone a retarded one. If Peter was stuck in a psychosexual stage it would be the phallic stage. This is because in an episode peter realizes that his son has larger genitals than he does. From this he soon becomes obsessed trying to use material things to show that he is still manly. In numerous episodes Peter reverts to acting as a child like the episode when Tom Tucker starts to date Peter’s mother, Peter begins to act like a child when Tucker doesn’t allow peter to get ice cream before he finishes dinner. This is an example of the defense mechanism regression which is reverting back to childish ways to cope with stress or pain. When Peter was very young his father was not around much at all and when he was he was always inebriated. Later in Peter’s adulthood he was told that the man he grew up with wasn’t his real father. Not having a father around could have a lot to do with his personality development and his pickup of alcoholism. Psychologist Freud would explain that these events have everything to do with his development and he believed that a father figure being there is necessary to a man’s superego or in other words conscience. Trait Perspective When analyzing Peter’s
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