Psychological analysis of a Movie character

Theme

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg.  The film deals with the theme of broken homes and troubled childhoods. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, and Nathalie Baye in supporting roles. The film is based on the life of real-life con artist Frank Abagnale, who, before his 19th birthday, successfully performed frauds worth millions of dollars. His foremost crime was check fraud; he became so highly skilled that after his arrest, the FBI turned to him for help catching other check forgers.

Plot

Teenager Frank lives in New York with his American father and French mother, Paula, who has an affair with her husband's friend.  When Father’s business takes a hit, the family is forced to move from their large home to a small apartment and Frank has to transfer to a Govt school, where he has huge adjustment issues. Frank runs away from home when his parents’ divorce. Needing money, he turns to fraud and scams to survive. With each success, Frank's frauds becomes bolder and bolder. He impersonates as an airline pilot, a doctor as well as a lawyer. He forges Pan Am payroll checks and soon, his forgeries are worth millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Carl begins tracking Frank. Carl finds Frank at a hotel, but Frank cons Carl into believing he is a Secret Service agent who is also after the fraudster and escapes before Carl realizes he was fooled.

While impersonating as a doctor he falls in love with Brenda, a naive young hospital worker. He asks Brenda's attorney father for permission to marry her, and also wants his help with taking the Louisiana State Bar exam, which Frank passes. Carl tracks Frank to his and Brenda's engagement party, but Frank again manages to escape before Carl reaches him. Before leaving, Frank asks Brenda to meet him at the Miami airport two days later. At the airport, Frank sees Brenda, but also spots plainclothes cops everywhere; realizing Brenda betrayed him, he escapes on a flight to Europe.

Carl finally tracks down Frank in France, in the small town, his mother is from. Carl arrests Frank and returns him to the U.S. Prior to landing, Carl informs Frank that his father has died. Grief-stricken, Frank escapes from the plane and goes to where his mother and stepfather live. As the police arrive, Frank surrenders. He is sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security prison. Carl occasionally visits him. During one visit, Carl shows Frank a check from a case he is working on. Frank can immediately identify that the bank teller was involved. Carl, the FBI agent is also divorced from his wife, and misses his daughter, which in a way makes him compassionate towards Frank, despite his frauds and sympathizes with him. Carl then convinces the FBI to allow Frank to serve the remainder of his sentence working for the FBI bank fraud unit. But Frank finds the work tedious and restrictive and misses his former life. One weekend, he attempts to fly as an airline pilot again. He is intercepted by Carl, who wants Frank to return to the FBI and says that he is free to run and no one is chasing him. On the following Monday, Carl grows nervous when Frank has not yet arrived at the office. However, Frank eventually shows up and eventually settles down with FBI and gets married and has children. He earned millions of dollars as a bank security expert, designed more-secure bank checks, and helped apprehend numerous counterfeiters.

Review of Psychological disorders in the character  The character of Frank needs to be analyzed in light of the circumstances he grew up in :-

•  Father is a liar and suffers huge losses in business.
•  Mother is cheating on her husband.
•  Parents’ divorce.

Personality Disorders

Anti Social Personality Disorder

It is a mental condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others without any remorse. This behaviour may cause problems in relationships or at work and is often criminal.

• Pattern of disregard for and violation of others’ rights.
• Failing to conform to laws and repeating that are grounds for arrest i.e. forging checks.
• Deceitfulness, characterized by aliases and conning others i.e. impersonated as a pilot, doctor and lawyer.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• Chases fantasies of success and power.
• Gains more and more money to feel powerful.
• Pattern of need for admiration, lack of empathy and grandiose acts.
• Takes advantage of others for his own gains i.e. uses his attractiveness to trick girls into giving him what he wants.

Missing Symptoms

•  Anti social Personality Disorder-Does not show aggressiveness.
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Does not have an inflated sense of self importance.

Relationship with theories of personality

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of Id, Ego and Super ego.

•       Frank had a very dominant Id and a very weak Ego with very little developed Super ego, as he ran away from home to avoid the trauma of his parents’ divorce and never hesitated to satisfy his needs even by cheating others.

Karen Horney’s major adjustment technique of moving against people.

• Frank tries to acquire wealth to gain power over people and seek approval.
• Neurotic Needs-Personal achievement, exploit others, prestige, personal admiration, self-sufficiency & independence.

Adler’s birth order theory.

• First born having tendencies to become criminals & perverts.
• Exhibits superiority complex to compensate for his inferior complexes.

Carl Jung- Frank always used a mask to hide his real persona and showcase only the    pleasant part. 

Carl Roger- Frank always sought validation from people around him

Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development.

• Identity vs. Role Confusion-Frank, 16 years old, struggles to figure out his social identity.
• He goes from being a pilot to being a doctor to being a lawyer.
• In the end, Frank becomes an FBI worker in the check fraud department.

Summary

Frank had a troubled childhood and his psychological problems multiply when his parents get divorced, as he could not cope with the trauma and ran away from home and led to negative actions. It’s a clear case of him following the id of his natural desires to avoid the pain and gain instant pleasure. Further, Frank’s criminal activities are a way of defending himself from the traumatic experience of losing his family and father. By becoming pilot, lawyer and a doctor, which are socially respected jobs, he tries to earn the approval of his father. Frank's motivation for forging checks and stealing money was to get his parents back together. He thought that if he helped solved his family's financial problems then he would be able to save his parent's marriage. Later on he realises the futility of running against the law and settles down to channelizing his potential for the good of the society