(REview)Lars and the Real Girl

I had seen Lars and the Real Girl when it first came out. I am always looking for the next indie

psychological film. What reminded me of this was from the list of movies off of PsychMajors.com. I

wanted to see this because I think it is absolutely fascinating how Lars connected to this life size replica

of a woman. The manifestation which became Bianca in his eyes was a reflection of his inner self. He

made her a story, a life, even down to the reason she was in a wheel chair. I think this would be

categorized as a delusion somehow. In the text book I could not find anything about inanimate objects

being addressed as living things. On page 248, there is the topic on delusions and hallucinations. I really

do not think this book would have covered it. I did learn from research is that when objects or animals

are given human characteristics it would be called Anthropomorphism. Not many people have studied the

human psyche in relation to loving and caring for an object has a human being. I actually have begun to

taking steps begin this as a thesis while I progress in psychology.

So far the studies on anthropomorphism have been the personification of pets. An article by

Tanya L. Chartrand, Gráinne M. Fitzsimons, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons, is about how anthropomorphism

activate associated concepts and automatically influence behavior. In Lars and the Real girl, the people

who cared for Lars treated Bianca as he did. For him to give her a name and call her feminine nouns

I think it definitely encouraged the people around him to also do so. For humans to relate human

characteristics to human like objects is not at all uncommon. Though it is not normally a grown man to a

woman figure, we can see it in other places. Children for example adore dolls and talk to them and groom

them like they are real. The difference from a baby and a baby doll to a young child could simply be

someone encouraging gentleness to the real baby.

Before watching Lars and the Real Girl, I knew these dolls were out there. I won’t say that I

learned something like, “There are people who love inanimate objects.” I want to say that I learned from

the movie was that the kindness of people weaned Lars off this crutch. It was a movie though, and to

believe that it could happen could be inaccurate. To watch a movie and learn something about it would

have to be something you never heard of before and you have that realization that the same situation

is out there in real life. I was impressed with the therapist though. I would like to be like her one day.

Something that I could take from this was the indirect approach to therapy. From the article is where I

learned many things. The experiment was a study of people who perceive dogs or cats as loyal. Loyal is

this context is the human characteristic associated of the dog. None said that a cat was more loyal than a

dog. Cartoons, books, and movies, all represent dogs as loyal and cats as snobs. It makes me think, why

should the word “loyal” be for both man and dog?