This project is a psychoanalysis of Peter Griffin from the animated show Family Guy. I demonstrated some of the defense mechanisms Peter uses which is definitely not lacking. Peter Griffin, created and voiced by Seth Macfarlane is the main character of the show Family Guy. He is morbidly obese, unbelievably stupid, extremely unaware and an impulsive alcoholic with three children. This TV show follows the Griffin family and the trouble they cause in Quahog, Rhode Island. While this animated show is morbid, perverted, and disturbing, it does a great job of displaying Freud's defense mechanisms albeit quite abnormally.
Peter is a very frustrating and spontaneous character. He’s deliberately abusive and crude towards his only daughter Meg, extremely competitive with his son Chris, and controlling or jealous in regards to his wife Lois. He is a blue collar worker at Pawtucket Brewery, where his job title is shipping clerk. Peter is not very good at holding in his anger, letting his emotions lead his actions during most of the show. Despite his idiotic demeanor and short attention-span, Peter’s behaviours are usually well-intentioned, and there are reasonable explanations for some of his hair-brain actions. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JIwftX-IPtc In this scene, we see Peter demonstrating rationalization as he calls in sick to work. For Peter, calling in sick for work is justifiable for his behaviour of not going in. The id in him is what makes him want to call in sick, thinking about what he wants only which is not working. The superego is what makes him create an excuse, looking out for his best interests and making sure he still has a job the next day. However, since Peter is unintelligent he creates an outlandish excuse. Rather than saying he’s sick, Peter explains his not coming in that day because he was in a plane crash, but will be in the next day. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uJy7Gn5GjJY The start of this scene shows Brian telling Peter he’s in denial of his weight. Peter obviously doesn’t believe him since he is in denial. Brian then demonstrates that Peter is so obese that he has his own gravitational pull. Peter’s is just wants him to be happy no matter what. His superego is responsible for his anger at being overweight, and since Peter does not want to accept this his ego uses denial to cover up. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxkle4kGS1A In this scene, and in the cutaway Peter exhibits repression. During the scene, Lois prank calls him as his “daughter” and instead of dealing with this new information Peter says not to call again and hangs up the phone. In the cutaway it is obvious Peter doesn’t care about these shows, but has to suppress those feelings and say he does anyways. His superego wants to show how angry or confused he is while his id knows it would be inappropriate. So his ego uses repression as a defence mechanism to be dismissive and not let Peter’s true feelings shine through. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ49j1ub1HU This is just one of many scenes where Peter portrays regression. His mind runs a little slow which is one of the reasons he does this, but the other is as a defence mechanism. In this specific clip, Peter and Quagmire make a mess and when Quagmire leaves, Peter knows he’s the one solely to blame. His id knows what he did is wrong and instead of screaming about it or getting in trouble as an adult, the ego reverts back to a simpler times to receive a punishment that a child would. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLcQppjZ5Hw This is a compilation of Peter bullying his daughter Meg. You can’t see the reasons why, but it’s usually from stress, pain, anger, or sometimes even sadness. Peter abusing Meg is his way of using displacement. His id is experiencing any of the aforementioned feelings, and the superego (instead of facing the root of the problems) directs this negativity onto a weaker, easier target. Meg is the laughing stock of the Griffin family, so to the ego she is the obvious choice. It’s quite clear that Peter is facing a large amount of conflict throughout the entirety of the show. If he hadn’t, there probably wouldn’t be as many episodes as there are. His superego seems to have an all right sense of what is good and bad, but he does have a very impulsive and hostile id that can blur that line. Trying to find the balance is Peter’s ego, using defense mechanisms to soften the blow as seen above.
8 Comments
Mrs. Colpitts
6/21/2018 09:24:38 pm
Jasmin, this is excellent! Peter is a great character choice (there's certainly no shortage of material). You've done a great job of summarizing the show, character and each scene. You've perfectly assigned the defence mechanisms with a great discussion of the imbalance of the ego for each one. Very well done. 30/30
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Holden Madick
1/5/2023 02:29:53 pm
Can a get ur #??
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joe mama
2/16/2023 06:29:28 pm
no nerd + ratio
ben
8/26/2020 07:00:13 pm
peter griffin isn't gonna date you dog grow a pair
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Peterfan2
4/11/2020 04:45:15 pm
Nice analysis on Peter Hilarious G.
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sarvesh
7/12/2022 06:27:13 am
this has ruined peter griffin for me
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Questions for further investigation:1. Are there any other defense mechanisms that we may not know about? |