Watching Inside Out 2 has got me thinking about where adolescent psychology and its dilemmas of belonging/self-efficacy/complex identity beliefs are lovingly and beautifully portrayed on screen lately as a complex dynamic process instead of just static...
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Watching Inside Out 2 has got me thinking about where adolescent psychology and its dilemmas of belonging/self-efficacy/complex identity beliefs are lovingly and beautifully portrayed on screen lately as a complex dynamic process instead of just static category boxes. Obviously first thought is the Spider-Verse movies. I LOVE how they approach adaptive, dynamic dialogue inside of psychological dilemmas in those movies, utter art.
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If the pixar/disney portrayal of adolescent psych is sweet and poignant but a little static/packing things into discrete boxes, Spider-Verse makes an answer out of breaking every box, visually and otherwise. And synthesizing knowledge & insight is shown in terms of physiology, cognition, emotion AND relating. In both Spider-Verse movies taking action is the complex answer to complex dilemmas of belonging and self-efficacy.
These movies are the social-constructivist's psychology!
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Spider-Verse is also different psychology I think in that it takes seriously the ways that adolescence might not only be about "successfully becoming like the adults." It can be about a new future altogether. Gifted adolescence transcending & reconstructing previous rules & constraints. That's a very NOW and present version of adolescent heroism, a really challenging psychological dilemma of needing to let go of belonging (even dearly held parts of it) in order to do something greater.
