The paper will describe a character, Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (Edwin & Stone, 1987) from a psychoanalytic perspective of Dr. Sigmund Freud. This paper will pair several quotes of Gordon Gekko with the correct perceived diagnosed disorder. In particular, this will illustrate Gekko's two personality disorders: Antisocial Personality Disorder and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The paper will conclude by summarizing these faults and then present an view of how well these theories describe the individual involved.
Bud Fox, a stockbroker has been relentless in arranging a ending up in his hero Gordon Gekko. He has called his office, every day, for over a month, but his attempts have failed miserably. He notices that it's Gordon's birthday so that a final effort to access the person he admires he pays a stop by at Gordon's offices in Manhattan. Armed with a box of the best possible & most expensive Cuban cigars Bud makes his way to the receptionist. She returns after delivering the cigars and has Bud sit back. After an hour has passed, she tells Bud he has five minutes with Mr. Gekko. His persistence and desperation to get to the very best and use the individual he admires has come down to the moment.
As Bud walks in to the office, he notices it is everything he might have imagined. The furniture, latest personal computers and view of downtown Manhattan give him a taste of the life he so desperately wants. Gordon positioned behind his desk is talking on the telephone as Bud is admiring his surroundings. Gordon finally acknowledges Bud and asks him his intentions. Bud is there to pitch stocks to Gordon in hopes of landing him as a customer, but quickly realizes he's not prepared as Gordon constantly calls his tips crap and is unimpressed. He finally tells Bud to provide him something or get out. Knowing that he is losing his opportunity, Bud gives Gordon insider home elevators a stock that he received from his father your day before by using an airline business his father works for. Gordon has Bud leave with the understanding he will consider it. Later that day Gordon calls Bud and places an order for the stock.
After doing research on Bud, Gordon understands how Bud became alert to the insider information. He's impressed with the move and takes Bud under his wing, but challenges him to find new information no matter what on future stock deals and hostile takeovers. He tells Bud his five hundred dollar suits aren't right and to invest in new ones. As more inside deals proceed through, Gordon takes Bud further into his world. The relationship deepens as Bud enjoys the perks and lifestyle he's creating by doing work for Gordon. Bud becomes wealthy, moves into a flat, nicer office and gets the woman of his dreams. All this was obtained through dealings with Gordon, and Mr. Gekko reminds him who the superior man is every step of just how.
The relationship requires a turn for the worse when Bud realizes that Gordon is currently using the same unethical business practices along with his father's airline company. Bud decides to manipulate the stock to be able to push Gordon to market instead of buy. Even though he knows that by doing this, he will lose everything. After realizing he was played, Gordon confronts Bud in Central Park, and both physically and verbally assaults him. Gordon lets Bud know that he is still the most powerful man on Wall Street, and he is now relegated to nothing.
Using Freud's psychoanalytical approach and the incorporation of which therapeutic approach should be used in concern to the psychoanalysis of Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street (Edwin & Stone, 1987) will be twofold: 1) diagnosis, and 2) practical therapy. First, explain the evident faults; next, develop a conscious knowing of these faults and determine a way by which to work around these obstacles. Dr. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical approach is fundamentally set around human behaviors and the unconscious. He believes humans are somehow driven by instincts and these all originate in the unconscious (Ridgeway, 2007). Based after that, from A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts (Moore, 1967), here will be the three applications of Psychoanalysis: a way of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks; a systematized set of theories about human behavior; method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness.
With this at heart, Gordon Gekko is currently set to experience Dr. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical approach. From the following quote within the film a duality of psychoanalytical constituents becomes evident: "Within the last seven deals that I am involved with, there have been 2. 5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Many thanks. I am not really a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The main point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in every of its forms: greed for life, for the money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind" - Gordon Gekko, (Edwin & Stone, 1987)
From the view of the capitalistic mindset, this quote brings two rather evident perspectives together: it takes that perspective of the individual, the independent laborer who must make the utmost priority in watching out for the "I, " and then straddles that thin line between the better good thing about the group. Humans are social; we only benefit optimally by working together; humans benefit only through interactions with other humans; humans need humans to develop such fortresses and offer for those 2. 5 million corporate stockholders, right along with all companies and businesses generally. However, Gekko solely advocates the view of the individual while complete disregard compared to that of any collaborative effort. That is a red-flag to signal psychological disorders.
"A corporation is a legal entity separate from the people that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders" -Gordon Gekko, (Edwin & Stone, 1987). Let's focus on the most apparent, Antisocial Sociopath Disorder. This illustrates certainly no regard for the concerns of others; people who have this affliction will do anything to obtain self-satisfaction and feelings of self-entitlement without respect for how their actions affect another person. An antisocial sociopath is utterly indifferent to others around her or him. This person operates under a regime totally unfamiliar to social behaviors, including lying, cheating, and stealing. The conduct of the people goes well beyond any social norm of acceptable behavior, and purely to be able to get ahead. Personality disorders typically commence in childhood, and then progress over time into rigid personality traits, obstructing social capabilities and acceptable functioning when relating to other folks. However, everyone can understand and recognize selfish behaviors, even selfish behavioral patterns, but this does not indicate a person is now, has become, or may become an antisocial sociopath; one with this disorder can identify symptoms from childhood. Surely Gordon Gekko carried this affliction from an exceptionally early age, too.
"Greed is good" -Gordon Gekko, (Edwin & Stone, 1987). Such as a puppet, greed in this example pulls the strings motivating Gordon Gekko to use by this tunnel focus. Yes, this personality disorder is prevalent in what we commonly perceive as spiteful, calculative, and manipulative materialists. Another feature shared by Gekko, specially the greedy antisocial sociopathic feature of this character, rests in his complete insufficient self-identification; antisocial sociopaths bring a sense of self-denial of any of this self-absorption.
As much a paradox that seems, due to the self-sacrifice he perceives because of self-denial, Gekko is so consumed in the self that he executes all his decisions with a complete lack of self-identification. Again, the antisocial sociopath disorder is the most apparent disorder of the character. In detailing how Gordon Gekko portrays the Antisocial Sociopathic qualities, Dr. Robbins conveys these characteristics: Antisocial Personality Disorder: These folks generally haven't any regard for the rights of others; they are simply exploitative, they see themselves as better or superior, and are very opportunistic. They can be deceitful, steal from people around them, and often have trouble with the law. They frequently engage in fraudulent activities, make very good scam artists, and have a tendency to be irritable and impulsive. They often times come in as a savior for a church, for example, and conclude stealing everything. They have no remorse. Conduct disorder as a child often morphs into antisocial personality disorder. Examples include the Mafia 'Dapper Don' John Gotti, or Tony Soprano in 'The Sopranos'. TV shows such as Dateline or 20/20 are replete with stories revolving around antisocial personality disorders (Robbins, 2005).
Gekko also displays top features of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Understood and commonly underplayed as vanity or conceit, this personality disorder, dictates that the narcissist is right, while everybody else is wrong. If an object, ideal, occasion, etc. , do not benefit the narcissist, then it is of no worth. We are able to all think of individuals who fit this ideal. Most of us bring these traits to the table, but the difference between a person with either of the clinical disorders and the rest of the "normal crowd" is that we identify these traits; anybody with this clinical disorder cannot. In a nutshell, let us allow Dr. Lawrence Robbins to provide another little bit of enlightenment: Narcissistic Personality Disorder: That is less common, and individuals see themselves to be above others, they can be grandiose, have a lack of empathy, plus they feel self-important. There is a true sense of entitlement. They may be extremely vain and constantly require admiration. These are envious, arrogant, exploitative, and can be quite angry. For example General George Patton, Nicole Kidman's character in the movie "To Die For", Michael Douglas' character, Gordon Gekko, in the movie "Wall Street", Kelsey Grammer's character in "Frazier", and the principle of Medicine, Dr. Robert Romano on it show "ER" (Robbins, 2005).
The applicable approach of Psychoanalytic therapy is to permit usage of the unconscious. "The treatment process can, at times, become blocked by the client's resistance (their unwillingness to provide information). Transference is a condition where the client commences to consider their therapist in the same emotional way they might look at a person in their lives, such as a parent or sibling. Dealing with interpretation, resistance, and transference is sometimes called working through, a therapeutic technique where the therapist helps the client better understand their conflicts and how to resolve them" (Depression Guide, 2005).
If Gordon Gekko had turn into a patient of Dr. Freud's I can only guess there is a considerable amount of your time spent with free association to be able to discuss child hood events, dreams or trauma which were repressed in the unconscious. Freud believed being greedy was natural, that people are born with it. He believed the unconscious was a location that contains unthinkable wishes and drives that needed to be socialized. Dr. Freud believed that people progressed through psychosexual stages as we grew from child to adult, and greed could be expressed in each of the stages. If you check out these stages it is easy to see where we could associate greed with each one. Oral greed could maintain the form of your biting hunger-perhaps the type that Gekko, who built his company's strategy around chewing up others, displayed. Gordon can have expressed anal greed either by keeping most of his money which he did in offshore bank accounts or by spending all of it on the finer things in life. Finally, Gordon's business greed came from the ambition that characterizes phallic greed and was displayed by his desire to be the most powerful and wealthiest man on Wall Street.
