Breaking Away Reflection

Movie Review: Breaking Away
Erik Erikson was heavily influenced by Freud but while Freud was an ID psychologist, Erikson was an ego psychologist. Erikson stressed that the development of the ego depended heavily on personal and social aspects. “According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crises that are distinctly social in nature. These involve establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future” (McLeod, S. 1970). His theory focused on personality development through eight distinct stages. He believed that personality progressed in a stacking or pre-determined manner, this is referred to as the epigenetic principle. One must

Role Confusion is the main stage that can be observed. Identity vs. Role confusion takes place from around 12 to 18. The four boys in this movie are all around 18 or so and are trying to figure out where to go from high school. Ego identity is one’s self-image, it integrates our ideas of what we are and what we would like to be whereas the identity confusion is looked at as failure to bring together previous developments into a consistent self-image. This confusion often results in feelings of worthlessness. Out of this stage of Erikson’s theory comes the virtue of fidelity, or the, “faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support” (Dictionary).
On a more refined level of Erikson’s theories, James Marcia’s four levels of ego identity are observed. The four stages are; Identity confusion, when there is not crisis or active commitments; foreclosure, still no crisis but starting to form beliefs, goals and values; moratorium, active crisis and actively trying to seek a way to resolve crisis, and finally, identity achievement; one has gone through and resolved crisis, and now has firm beliefs and

For each of them, the victory had a different meaning. For Moocher, it was standing up for a friend, he knew the race was important to Dave. When nobody else jumped in after Dave fell, he took action. The victory for Cyril was proof that he could be something important after all. He was not just a somebody drifting along without a purpose. For Michael, the victory was a way to stick it to the man. He felt the need to compete to show that cutters were not less than the university kids. Although for him, the victory may have been to spite the kids from the university, he knew it was important to Dave as well. As for Dave, Dave lost the big city race but won the small-town victory. His parents showed up to support him in doing something he loved, and his friends had his back all the way through. He never gave up, he did not need to pretend to be anybody other than who he was from the start, and his determination helped them win. If any of the characters reached identity achievement, or fidelity, it would have been Dave. After the race, nothing more is shown of his friends, but it shows Dave on campus at the university with a group of friends and meeting a girl who speaks