Symbolic Interactionism In Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a story about Will Hunting who works as a janitor at MIT cleaning classrooms. Will is an orphan who grew up in various foster homes and was physically abused as a child. Will is also an extraordinary mathematical genius with a photographic memory, who enjoys solving math problems. Will blames himself for his unhappy upbringing and turns this self-loathing into a form of self-sabotage in both his professional and emotional lives. Because Will blames himself he is unable to maintain a steady job or a steady relationship. Will must learn to overcome his fear of abandonment in order to learn how to trust and love people who

Everyone has fears, our experiences in life are the ones that shape them; for Will Hunting from (Good Will Hunting) it was the fear of abandonment. His trust was broken at a young age by many people, by the ones that were supposed to care for him the most. After that, he expected everyone would do what was done to him by his biological and his foster parents. The only family that Will ever had was his friends. This was Sean’s reply when Lambeau questioned Wills choice in friends. “And why does he hang out with those retarded gorillas, as you called them, because any one of them if he asked them to, would take a fucking bat to your head, okay? It's called loyalty” (Good Will Hunting). Will thought his friends were the only people that he could

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to the experiences in life. It also studies how people discuss the meaning of social life during interactions

In the 1997 indie drama film Good Will Hunting, the protagonist, Will Hunting, is a young man of genius intelligence that chooses to work as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A victim of child abuse, Will takes his past and uses it in a form of self-sabotage. He works labor jobs, deters himself from women and any form of love, and spends time with his low-life friends. One night at a bar, a Harvard student named Clark brags of his comprehension of the market economy evolution to Will’s best friend, Chuckie, and attempts to make him appear ignorant for not knowing of such. In Chuckie’s regard, Will steps into the conversation. Through a strong sense of pathos, he makes Clark feel guilty and small for how he treated his

Good Will Hunting is a movie about a troubled young man abandoned by his parents only to be severely abused by the foster parents entrusted to care for him. Due to his tormented childhood he finds himself a young man unable to trust most people besides a few close friends. His prospects for a future out of dead end jobs, in his poverty stricken neighborhood, seem slim. Despite being a natural gifted mathematical genius, Will finds himself frequently involved with the law. It is while working at a janitorial position at MIT that a Field’s Medal winning professor discovers Will’s mathematical talent. When Will finds himself again in court, it is here where the professor bails him out. Upon release from jail and with the stipulation of receiving counseling, and holding himself accountable to the professor, Will

Symbolic interactionism helps explain both of our individual personalities and the ways the human society is linked together (p.27). It also helps us differentiate social order and change through a process. The teachings of symbolic interactionism comes mostly from George Herbert Mead But,George was not the only one that influenced the thoughts and ideas of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interaction is theoretical perspective so it is still changing and evolving. It also has four kinds of understandings in the population and environment. One of the understandings is that symbolic interactionism is to understand why people engage or do not engage in social growth of the population . Symbolic Interactionism assumes that people from different social backgrounds, and different cultures may see different social issues within their social community. George Mead,Charles Cooley and Herbert Blumer shaped symbolic interactionism on the predictions of yourself causing you to behave a certain way so it becomes true.

One of the key reasons why Sean was able to teach Will to open up was to by first opening up himself. Sean was not afraid to show his faults and allowed Will to challenge him on certain, albeit emotionally-charged, occasions. Instead of completely shunning the challenges as the other psychologists in the movie, Sean actually faced those statements and answered them sincerely whilst accepting that he was not perfect. In other words, he showed Will it was okay to be vulnerable to his emotions and to accept his imperfections. He was able to show Will that he cared, as with many other patients who suffered abuse as a child, Will seemed to have blamed himself for what happened until Sean gently, but firmly challenged Will to accept it. By the end of the plot, Will was ready to start taking risks and learning to live life more

Symbolic interaction theory is symbols that give a meaning. Society is viewed as subjects and social status and that they are given symbols. Homeless people are approached through symbols. Symbols can be anything like for instance the way they act, the clothes they wear and the kind of food they eat.

The movie Good Will Hunting exploits many points of psychology in the character Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT who has a knack for math. Some of the points of psychology include how a character develops after a lot of child abuse during his childhood. It exploits the idea that a child who becomes secluded may never allow an attachment, or when an attachment finally starts to occur, pushes them away. It also exploits the idea that Will Hunting has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Because of the post-traumatic stress disorder it seems that Will is unable to function normally in society, and because of this, carefully plans out his future as to not have to worry about encountering many people.

The Symbolic Interaction theory refers to ways in which a family or society attaches meaning to verbal communication, non-verbal communication, people, and objects. We are taught from a young age communication using verbal language and accepted ways to express our needs. The theory represents perception of objects or actions (Macionis, 2007, p.17).

Symbolic interactionist is a micro level of social analysis, it is concerned with individual experiences and the wider society. As well as not focusing on the core structures or support the general theory of society like the functionalist does.

Finally there is Sean Maguire. Sean is Will’s therapist after he is sentenced to either therapy or jail. Sean teaches psychology at a community college in Boston and also had a tough upbringing. Sean has generally been lost and unhappy since his wife passed years ago. Professor Lambeau and Sean used to be old college roommates and Professor Lambeau is the one who refers Sean as a therapist for Will.

This paper will discuss the relationship between Will Hunting and the psychologist Sean Mcguire in the movie Good Will Hunting. The struggles that occur between these main characters will be analyzed and their meanings found. A basic outline of the movie will be included to give the larger picture and its influence upon the two men.

Symbolic Interactionism is the “ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). George Herbert Mead, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, developed this theory. He believed “that our thoughts, self-concept, and the wider community we live in are created through communication, verbal and non-verbal” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). There are “three core principles of symbolic interaction: meaning, language, and thinking” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). The meaning is “humans act toward people and things according to the meanings they assign to those people or things” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 55). Language “arises out of the social

Symbolic Interaction focuses on a micro view of society. It focuses on a small scale perspective of interaction between individuals. Imagine you`re with a friend instead of looking at large scale structures like education or law, since we are looking at the small scale symbolic interaction explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change.