Henry was a normal boy and did all of the normal things young boys do: making noise, being busy and active, nosing around in the refrigerator, and asking questions - all part and parcel of being a normal child. But he was brought up to believe he wasn't a "model boy." His parents were constantly interrupted by him - his mother while she was reading and grading papers, and his father so much so that he spent most of his time in his office on campus, joining them only at mealtimes. His father wished to remain "blissfully unaware."
Henry Smart seemed to evolve into a man who was remarkably similar to his father. In Doyle’s A Star Called Henry, both Henry and his father committed heinous crimes on behalf of a higher authority, but Henry justified his actions by cloaking himself in the Irish flag. Henry Sr. relied on a wooden leg for both transportation and savage purposes and Henry Jr. adopted his father’s leg both physically and for his own violent agenda. Additionally, Henry Sr.’s staple fashion choice was a coat covered in dirt and blood. Eventually, however, Henry Jr. wore a coat of his own, which too, was coated in the grime of his own maniacal actions. He eventually threw the coat out, suggesting, in the end, that he had become his own man. Thus, while it appeared
Henry is the type of character that we know in many of the books we read. Constantly he is thinking that he is
Sigmund Freud was the first psychologist to suggest that everyone has a large unconscious. He also identified three parts of the personality: the id, ego, and superego. Freud said that the id operates on “pleasure principle”, the ego operates on “reality principle”, and the superego operates on “moral principle”. A great showcase of the different parts of the personality can be found within the movie Regarding Henry. In this movie Henry Turner falls victim to an armed man in his local convenience store. After the accident Henry’s personality, and life in general, undergoes a drastic change. In my opinion, Henry’s natural state is his id.
Moreover, another event from the movie that shows his (CD) is his attempt to kill his mother. After running away from her in the woods and hiding, he tries to push his mother of a cliff. This plan was once again stopped by Mark. This ultimately led to Henrys death. This shows just how maladaptive or out of touch with the world Henry was. As I pointed out earlier, Henry was a very intelligent and manipulative child. He convinced his parents and other elders around him to believe that he was the perfect child and tried turning them against his cousin Mark. He even had Mark’s doctor believing that Mark had a problem. According to (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12/10/09) both of these events are characteristics of (CD).
Prior to the accident, Henry lives a very demanding and stressful life. As a result of this, he only thinks about himself in situations. For example, when Henry is in court arguing an older couple, he intentionally deceives the judge and jury in order to win the case. This reveals the Id because it is what he desires fitting the “pleasure principle”. After the accident, Henry remains in this state but expresses it differently. For example, one morning while Henry is having breakfast with his daughter, he spills his orange juice on purpose. In another scene with his daughter at the library, Henry flicks a piece of paper at her and thinks it’s funny. This reveals his child-like self and unconscious state of mind.
Before getting shot, Henry tended to use his Id more than his Superego. One example of this is when he was in the courtroom defending the guilty person. He wasn’t thinking of who was actually guilty, he was only thinking of winning the case and getting money. He put the poor innocent people through a lot of trouble, only so it would benefit him. Another example of Henry showing his Id would be when Rachel spilled something on his piano.
In the film Regarding Henry, Harrison Ford’s character, Henry Turner is shot in the brain while out late at night purchasing cigarettes. This changes the cold, stern, lawyer into an innocent, caring, gentlemen. This is a prime opportunity to psychoanalyze Henry Turner’s id and superego, and determine which is his natural state. This can be done through studying specific examples of each.
Henry has many more examples of his Superego state than his Id state after he gets shot. Bradley definitely has a lot to do with this because when Henry woke up from his coma, he was basically “reborn”, so he was looking for a “mother figure”, and that figure happened to be Bradley. Bradley is willing to sacrifice for others, is compassionate towards other people’s feelings, and wants to help people instead of hurting them. Bradley then rubs off these traits onto Henry while he is recovering from his
In the movie “Regarding Henry”, there are many examples of the selfishness id and superego. Henry was a very selfish man before he lost his conscious, however he changed so much no one really recognized him after he got better from his accident. There are many scenes that show his selfishess id however.. For instance the night he went and bought ciggarettes really late at night just because he couldn’t wait. Also this was the night Henry got shot at the super market late that night. Henry was sent to hostipal and he ended up forgetting alot of things. Such as his family and friends .This shows his selfishness of not being able to wait another day while his daughter was home and sleeping. Another example, is apologizing to his daughter about his job and it was more sacrastisic than serious.
In “Regarding Henry”, Henry Turner depicts a more complex nuanced Id and Superego. In Regards of the beginning of the movie Henry Turner was a person to sustain from, because he was a very hardworking man and his life revolved work and more work. Examples of Henry showing his Id sides are, Henry cheating on his wife, and Henry working all the time. Examples of Henry showing his superego consist of Henry forgiving his wife after cheating, and Henry pulling his daughter out of the magnet school.
Henry is perceived to be very young, impressionable, and naive in the beginning of the novel. After their first battle, he
The irony is that he complained about not having one since the beginning of the novel. All the soldiers had one. Henry didn’t. To be honest, he wanted to be wounded purposely, just so he could be like everyone else.
Henry often displays his superego with his daughter; such as, when he drops her off at school he tells her a story from his days at school making her feel better about her first day. He did not even remember his first day of school; it was all a lie to make Rachel content about going to the new school. His superego cared about Rachel and her feelings. Also, Henry returns to work and reads through his old cases; he spends all his time finding flaws in them. He sees that he tricked and cheated people just to win and can no longer understand why he would do that. In the end Henry becomes confident in his new life view and changes everything, quitting his job, moving, and bringing his daughter home. After a couple weeks of recovery Henry realizes that he cannot return to his prior selfish state, and he must change his
The most mysterious of the characters, Henry is the one character that the audience knows the least and many of his actions have to be analyzed. He has glasses with dark hair and pale skin; the last name ‘winter’ is reminiscent of this. He is the most intelligent of all the characters, and his personality is slowly revealed throughout the novel. At first he seems to be very rude and pretentious, but as the novel progresses Henry seems to be very loyal and also the most diplomatic. However, he is rather selfish, killing himself to avoid the fallout of his murder of Bunny and the fight with Charles.