Alcoholism and Fatherless Developement: Hurting One Close to Me

Peter Kominsky’s White Oleander is a fictional story laden with real world psychological principles. It was a film that put me through a variety of emotional highs and lows. Although it may not be ideal for the faint hearted, I strongly recommend this film to young people everywhere; it is a work of art that may be especially enjoyable for the curious psychology student.

White Oleander features a narcissistic mother, a young girl who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, authoritarian parenting, and suicide among other psychologically relevant characters, themes, and plot twists. Alcoholism as a coping device as well as the development of an individual within a fatherless family are psychological principles that interest me greatly. Both of these principles are evident in Kominsky’s film; consequentially, making the film a great starting point to further explore alcoholism and fatherless development.

Alcoholism is an addiction that affects approximately 14 million United States citizens (King). It is important to note, however, that alcohol is not often considered a drug. In reality, alcohol is the most commonly used and widely abused psychoactive drug in the world. The type of abuse that I am most interested in is psychological dependence. Psychological dependence is a strong desire to repeat the use of alcohol for emotional reasons such as feelings of well-being and stress reduction (King). Many factors contribute to psychological dependence. Sadly enough, there may be a genetic predisposition for an individual to become psychologically dependant on alcohol. 50-60% of those who become alcoholics are believed to have a gene for it (King). Environmental factors such as family, friends, the ease of obtaining alcohol and peer influence among other factors can react with one’s genetics to form a complex dynamic system of both physical and psychological dependence. If you are reading this blog thinking that you may have a problem with either physical or psychological dependence alcoholics anonymous (Alcoholics Anonymous) is one of the most recognized, accredited and available support groups.

Within the film, the character of Star uses alcohol as a coping mechanism. Astrid’s dialogue with Davie , found 7:40 minutes into part 4 provides a hint that Star has had problems with psychological dependence to alcohol.

Forward to 7:44

Star’s dialogue with her daughter Kara-Lee, found 30 seconds into part 5, cements the viewers inclination that Star has had, and continues to battle a psychological dependence on alcohol.

View from :30-2:08

In the waning moments of the above clip, Start attempts to take Astrid’s life. The correlation between alcohol consumption and homicides is a very interesting area of study. A whopping 60% of homicides in the United States involve alcohol consumption by either the offender or the victim (King). Here are a few extremely disturbing statistics concerning the correlation between alcohol consumption and homicide…
• Alcohol availability is closely related to violent assaults. Communities and neighborhoods that have more bars and liquor stores per capita experience more assaults.
• Alcohol use is frequently associated with violence between intimate partners. Two-thirds of victims of intimate partner violence reported that alcohol was involved in the incident.
• In one study of interpersonal violence, men had been drinking in an estimated 45 percent of cases and women had been drinking in 20 percent of cases.
• Women whose partners abused alcohol were 3.6 times more likely than other women to be assaulted by their partners.
• In 1997, 40 percent of convicted rape and sexual assault offenders said that they were drinking at the time of their crime.
• In 2002, more than 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 were victims of alcohol-related sexual assault in the U.S.
• In those violent incidents recorded by the police in which alcohol was a factor, about nine percent of the offenders and nearly 14 percent of the victims were under age 21. 7
• Twenty-eight percent of suicides by children ages nine to 15 were attributable to alcohol.
• An estimated 480,000 children are mistreated each year by a caretaker with alcohol problems.
(Kuhn).

Now, in no way can one say that all of these statistics concern individuals with psychological or physical dependence on alcohol; however, the more frequently that one person drinks, the more likely they are to commit an act that correlates with alcohol consumption.

Alcoholism is an issue the affects all ages, races, and economic classes; it is imperative to recognize that the foremost way to address this travesty is in the field of treatment. If you are or anyone that you know is having difficulty with psychological, physical or both forms of addiction, please take action. Research related to White Oleander has showed that alcoholism is an addiction that affects far more lives than one.

The development and maturation of an individual within a fatherless family is a scenario that has always been of significant interest to me. Having grown up in a family where the father gradually became and absentee even destructive variable in the family, I have noticed that such a development has had a grave impact on my development. I find myself yearning for the support, advice, and companionship that only a father can offer. As much as our society is attempting to reach a state of genderless parenting, I am a strong believer that the most fruitful development is seen within a family fathered by a male and mothered by a female, both being present throughout the developmental stages. I wish daily that I had a father figure in my life.

Throughout White Oleander, I could not help but to relate to Astrid’s fatherless development. Astrid’s case is a bit more extreme as she has never had a father figure in her life. It is evident that Astrid is pondering her absentee father 4:15 into scene 6.

Forward 4:15

Astrid brings Freud’s ideas to fruition with her desire of the sexual attention of a father figure. Astrid seeks out the sexual affection of her foster father at the very beginning of scene 5.


According to the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, "Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide" (NCHS). At the time of the marital separation, when, as typically occurs, the father leaves the family home and becomes progressively less involved with his children over the ensuing years, it appears that young girls experience the emotional loss of father as a rejection of them. While more common among preschool and early elementary school girls, this phenomenon has been observed in later elementary school and young adolescent children; furthermore, the continued lack of involvement is interpreted as ongoing rejection. Many girls attribute this rejection to their not being pretty enough, affectionate enough, athletic enough, or smart enough to please father and engage him in regular, frequent contacts (Kalter).

Similarly, girls whose parents divorce may grow up without the day to day experience of interacting with a man who is attentive, caring and loving. The continuous sense of being valued and loved as a female seems an especially key element in the development of the conviction that a young girl is lovable. Hence, without this regular source of nourishment, a girl's sense of being valued as a female seems to falter (Drill).

Daughters of single parents are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth, and 92% more likely to dissolve their own marriages (Blankenhorn). As a result, all the intergenerational consequences of single motherhood increase the likelihood of chronic welfare dependency (Whitehead). Finally, daughters of single parents are 2.1 times more likely to have children during their teenage years than are daughters from intact families (Blankenhorn).

There are obvious, physical and emotional consequences to fatherless development within females. In conclusion, I would like to site the unique example of someone close to me who has been touched by each of these psychological principles. My sister uses alcohol as a coping device. Her psychological dependence is in direct response to an increasingly fatherless development. She is a fine example that the presence of violence in families predicts substance abuse (Kalia). I am planning on showing her this blog entry; I hope that it will induce positive reformation in the form of treatment.

Andrew North Glander