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Analysis on the Movie Instinct Essay

Decent Essays

Instinct –About A Mere Illusion
One of the two main characters in this movie is Dr. Ethan Powell, an anthropologist. The study of primatology is present in this movie, because Dr. Powell is shown several times living with the mountain gorillas. He gains their trust by adapting to the way they live and interact. I think a little bit of cultural anthropology is also present because although he is studying primates, I believe they have a culture and Dr. Powell has adapted to their nature.
The second important character in this movie is Dr. Theo Caulder, a psychologist. The first sub field of psychology that is present in this movie is cognitive psychology. We are introduced to Dr. Caulder while he is interviewing a patient who is …show more content…

Powell and other inmates) behave the way they do and and what causes them to act that way, their mental process. Dr. Caulder soon changes the way he interviews Dr. Powell by accommodating him in environments that are closer to him or that he would possibly feel safer in. For example, he takes Dr. Powell to the zoo to see some on the gorillas and then asks the guards to leave because he realizes it was making Dr. Powell feel uncomfortable. Frankincense, making both Dr. Powell's and Dr. Caulder' way of conducting research similar.
I think humans are truly not in control of their own lives. If we were, everyone would be doing whatever they wanted to do and that would be “savage.” Life is a game and sometimes we need to be taught how to play properly by a simple example of humanity. Dr. Powell proclaimed that you would find more violence in the city in one day then you ever would in the the forest and I agree. Humans are the only species that kill each other for reasons other than survival.
I believe that control is merely an illusion that we like to believe we have. In one of Dr. Caulder's sessions with Ethan, the guards are asked to leave and soon Dr. Caulder is held captive by Ethan and is demanded to write down what he has lost. Dr. Caulder answers “control” but Ethan says no and asks a few more times. Finally realizing what Ethan is talking about, Dr. Caulder writes down “illusion.”Ethan then explains how we only have the illusion of having

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