
Assessments of film, literature, and clinical case in the process of synchronized individuation
Items | Boyhood |
The hen who dreamed she could fly |
Clinical case: a father and a son |
---|---|---|---|
Type | Film | Literature | Clinical case |
Background | United States of America, 2002-2014 | Published in Korea, 2000, in U.S., 2013 | Treatment in a clinic, Korea |
Family | Son, older sister, mother, father, two step-fathers, father’s girlfriend | Adopted son, mother (personified story) | Son, mother, father |
Core relations | Son-mother Son-biological father and step fathers |
Adopted son-mother | Son-father |
Perspective | Son | Mother | Clinician (3rd person) |
Main issues | Simultaneous growing and individuation of family members | Adopted son’s growing and separation, Self-realization and individuation |
Conflict between father and son, Acceptance with new identity |
Processes of synchronized individuation | Seeking secureness, Mutual recognition of equality, Selective identification, Getting responsibility, Ambivalence about separation, Son’s college entrance | Mutual recognition from discrepancy, Selective identification, Loneliness and anxiety, Ambivalence about separation, Adopted son’s leaving with same kind | Loss of idealized self-object and aggression, Family psychotherapy, Mutual recognition from ambivalence, Drive for change and selective identification, Son’s college entrance |
Results of synchronized individuation | Coping with emptiness, mutual respect of socialization | Tolerating the separation anxiety, Mutual respect of new identity | Acceptance of their new position, Getting responsibility, Mutual respect of their opinion |
*movie, Boyhood: a 2014 American film, directed by Richard Linklater; †fairy tale, author Sun-Mi Hwang, 2000 Korean, 2013 English;
‡clinical case reported by Moon DS and Bahn GH in J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2022;33(2):41-47