Topic > Will Hunting's psychological catharsis in Good Will Hunting

Gus van Sant's 1997 film Good Will Hunting tells the story of a conflicted college kid from a tough South Boston neighborhood with a troubled past, which appears to be also a closet prodigy in the realms of mathematics who finds work at MIT as a janitor where his savant is noticed by a professor, while at the same time struggling to escape a wall of repressed internal emotions that prevent the protagonist from breaking free from a multitude of boundaries in his life prevent him from progressing, and will not be violated until he meets an equal in a psychology teacher. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is praised by his peers for being "The Smart One" in his group of delinquents and is given the opportunity of a lifetime by a professor he doesn't take very seriously due to preconceived notions, to work at his side. MIT mathematicians who try to solve advanced combinatorial mathematical equations and at the same time receive a prison-free card after committing assault. Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), a prestigious mathematician, realizes that Will is the anonymous person who easily solved an ancient mathematical equation that baffled all other predecessors on a blackboard in the MIT hallway while catching Will answering to multiple equations while on janitor duty before being sentenced and offers Will this deal after attending Will's court hearing. The deal comes with a second condition that Will is reluctant to accept and which also forces Will to see a therapist named Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), Professor Lambeau's old college roommate. Will is very hesitant in this film, from denying high-level job offers, to prematurely ending an attempted romance with his first serious girlfriend Skylar (Minnie Rider), and the various defense mechanisms Will implements during her therapist sessions with Sean who eventually collapse in one of her last crucial sessions with Sean. This final session is the climactic scene where Sean has finally identified all the defensive layers that Will has fortified leading to an emotional catharsis of realization rooted in Will's abuse-filled childhood that has led Will to never step out of his comfort zone for a lifetime. The director's composition of various psychological references that create coherent correlations with each other throughout the film, sincere acting and execution of visual cues highlighted by alternating editing techniques characterize the vital roles in adequately conveying the climatic metamorphosis of Will Hunting from his archetype of rationalizing every decision out of his comfort zone, to Will attempting love by making a last-second, reckless decision to drive across the country to California in hopes of reuniting with his love. Skylar represents the overarching ideological perspective that Will is about to adopt as his new philosophical outlook on life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The scene begins with a commotion in Sean's office, showing Professor Lambeau standing in front of Sean making an arrogant statement directed at Sean, implying that Sean is trying to undermine Lambeau's goal of using Will to make great strides in mathematics as Sean will not write off Will as a person deemed psychologically coherent enough to adapt to society's norms without more coherent therapy. Professor Lambeau implies that his reputation is on the line based on his manipulation of the situation, while Sean cares more about the psychological well-being ofWill, arguing that Lambeau pushes Will forcefully in the direction of a projected fulfillment that is not based on Will's happiness, but Lambeau's, could lead Will to a negative regressive stage. Lambeau, in contrast, calls Will's friends all gorillas and thinks that if he leaves the path he has set for Will he will end up in prison. Sean, raised in South Boston like Will, made it a response to Lambeau that he is more privileged, which is based solely on the idea of ​​loyalty tied to his hardened group of South Boston friends who would fight to the end for each other's 'other. Since Will only understands this form of loyalty since he was an orphan growing up and was abused by his adoptive parents who were supposed to be the people who loved him, but instead abused him, Will has developed a mechanism of defense to remove people before they arrived. the possibility of hurting him by getting too close. Although both characters realize the volatility of the fragile psychological structure that Will's mind finds itself in, they both have completely different perspectives on the question of the right direction for Will to take from this point in the film, based on how the light of life he hit. from different angles in a metaphorical sense and how the shadows cast by their decisions when they were younger reflect on their current position in life through the life paths they chose in their period of existence. At this point Will arrives at Sean's office for his therapy appointment looking through a blurry window remaining unnoticed while listening to the conversation while Professor Lambeau begins to hit Sean inciting that he is making Will believe that it is okay to be a failure just like him it was Sean because Sean chose a life with his recently deceased wife, unlike Professor Lambeau whose only goal in life was to obtain a prestigious medal. Sean declares that he is not a failure and hates the thought of Professor Lambeau making Will feel this way. As the argument between the two becomes more heated, it reaches a climax when Professor Lambeau continues to talk about how Will needs to be pushed as if he pushed himself and Sean declares "He's not you!" at this point Will appears at the door to Lambeau's surprise when he announces that he may return later, leading to an awkward situation where Lambeau declares that he was going out while grabbing his coat. After Will listens to a segment of this confrontation between the two men about his psychological diagnosis of abandonment Will attempts to turn the therapy session into Sean due to the troubled relationship he has with Lambeough by taking on the role of shrink in a joking manner until he notices a on Sean's desk which draws his attention to him questioning its meaning. Sean informs Will that it is his personnel file that he must send back to the judge for evaluation of his psychological diagnosis. Will then speculates about his self-diagnosis of attachment disorder by announcing it to Sean and becomes interested in whether Sean had experienced anything similar to Will's past indicated by the photos of brutal beatings Will suffered in his file in relation to Will's 20 years of psychological practice. Sean is in personal experience. Sean then reveals that he was beaten by his drunken father while growing up, which leads the two lonely characters to exchange stories of favorite forms of abuse, which begins to make Sean more relatable to Will. At this point Will tells Sean that his diagnosis fits perfectly with why he broke things off with his girlfriend Skylar for no good reason other than demons haunting him that Sean didn't know about. Sean asks Will ifhe wants to talk about it, which in turn Will quickly dismisses the idea. Sean then reviews Wills' files and tells him that all the things associated with his file cannot be attributed to him in a powerful statement of "it's not your fault." Will attempts to escape the situation by acknowledging this notion by saying "I know" so as to assuage Sean's diagnosis, but so Will may also escape the emotional turmoil resulting from this sensitive topic, but like a broken record Sean repeats this phrase by acknowledging how Will approaches various situations defensively after many therapy sessions. Will eventually responds violently, but Sean expected this outburst by reinforcing him in repeating the phrase "It's not your fault" until Will burst into tears. Sean opens his arms to hug Will and Will returns the action while being cradled in Sean's arms as if Will were his son. Will then lets out a cry of remorse as he says "I'm sorry!" with tears streaming down his face before the scene is cut. This moment here is the defining moment of the film which shows for the first time in the entire film an instance where Will lets someone in and loses his selfish tough guy attitude. Will's preconceived notions about the world that he had assimilated over time as facts in his head have been shattered, changing how protagonist Will approaches his life in future events. The rest of the film supports this idea as Will has a final session with Sean where he has made progress in pursuing some jobs that interested him, his close group of friends raises money to buy him his first car, and his final note addressed to Sean causing him to apologize to Professor Lambeau for the work he had prepared for Will because he had made the decision to "go find a girl", which is a line Will stole from Sean in an early therapy session scene of the film where Sean talks about the moment he made a decision that implied he knew he had found the person he truly loved in his wife instead of turning down tickets to a historic Red Sox game with his friends at the time. The cross-country trip to California to patch things up with Skylar after Will regressed into a safe zone and severed ties with Skyler is bound to result in a psychological victory for the protagonist who overcomes his fears at the end of the film as a spectator. is meant to imagine a happy ending when Will surprises Skyler in California. Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgard's acting during Sean and Professor Lambeau's discussion about Will's fragile nature was just as important as Robin Williams and Matt Damon's role when Will finally breaks down his walls. The complex and different perspectives that Sean and Lambeugh have on this boy are both reflections of the younger versions of themselves they see in Will. The grand manifestation of the perceived outcomes of what Will's future should look like regarding this perceived notion can be seen passionately displayed as the two actors crash into each other screaming back and forth in frustration. The passionate debate between the two old colleagues that Will is able to see through the hidden window with an impartial point of view shows that Sean has Will's best interest as opposed to the arrogance shown by Professor Lambeau who seems to be trying to manipulate Will in the name of having his name associated with a mathematical prophecy regarding the likes of Einstein. The ever-increasing emotion evicted from these two men caused Matt Damon to express a side of Will that he hadn't shown audiences for nearly the entire film. Robin Williams' emotional demonstration of how much his character has to..