Relationships and Repression-Psychological Principles in White Oleander

White Oleander is a film about the relationship between a mother, Ingrid Magnussen, and her 15 year old daughter Astrid. They live together in California, where Ingrid is an artist and a poet. However, one day their life is turned upside down. Ingrid had her heart broken by a man named Barry Kolker, so to get revenge, she murders him with the poison of the White Oleander flower. Due to this, Ingrid is taken to prison and Astrid is taken away to be put in a foster home. As the movie continues, Astrid is passed from foster home to foster home, all the while keeping in touch with her mother through letters and visits. There are many psychological principles that can be seen in this movie.

Ingrid's Narcissism and Parenting Style

One of the first principles we see is the narcissism of Astrid's mother. Ingrid has an incredibly selfish personality. She always puts herself before other people, including her own daughter. In the beginning of the movie, Astrid asks her if she plans on coming to parents' night at her school, and Ingrid responds by saying that she can not attend because she made plans to go to the opening of an art show. As the movie goes on, Ingrid's selfishness can be seen when Astrid tells her about her different foster mothers. Ingrid doesn't want Astrid to love anyone other than herself, and she even goes so far as to basically convince Claire, one of the mothers, to commit suicide. She never considers Astrid's feelings in anything she does. Astrid gets increasingly angry with her mother and eventually blows up at her saying "Everything has always been about you, never about me". (Click here and start at the 3 minute, 14 second mark to see a clip of this.) She says this after finding out that her mother left her for about a year when she was younger because she did not want to take care of her and wanted to spend time with her lover instead. This also shows a lot about Ingrid's parenting style. She was a neglectful parent, which means that she was permissive and not involved in Astrid's life as much as she should have been, especially at Astrid's young age. This style of parenting normally causes children to have problems forming lasting relationships in their life, and this obvious throughout Astrid's different foster home escapades (King, 2008, p. 125).

Attraction between Astrid and Ray

The first foster home that Astrid goes to is the home of Starr, her children and her boyfriend Ray. Automatically we notice an attraction between Astrid and Ray. She is constantly following him around and talking to him and eventually they end up having an affair. The psychological principle that is seen in this is the attraction to a father figure. Astrid never had a father growing up, so Ray was the first father figure she really had. According to Freud, this has to do with problems in the phallic stage of development. When children are in the phallic stage, they are attracted to their father (for females) or mother (for males). This is called the Oedipus and Electra complex (King, 2008, p. 411). Astrid didn't have a father though, so she never fully experienced this stage. Therefore, when she meets Ray, the fatherly attraction develops. However, Astrid takes this attraction to another level by actually acting on it.

Repressed Memories

In the movie, Astrid draws pictures of a woman that she vaguely remembers, but doesn't know who she is. She has this image in her mind and knows that she knew her before, but she can not remember how or why she knows her. All she recalls is that her name is Annie. Watch the following clip from 1:07-1:33 to see a clip of this.  

This is an example of a repressed memory. Repression refers to "a defense mechanism by which a person is so traumatized by an event that he or she forgets it and then forgets the act of forgetting" (King, 2008, p. 308). Astrid eventually finds out that Annie was the women that took care of her when Ingrid left her.  This was a traumatic experience for Astrid, so the memory was repressed.  However, it started to come back to her and she knew she had to find out who the woman was. Repressed memories can be retrieved if something stimulates them or someone reminds the person what happened.

All in all, White Oleander was a great movie and had some very deep psychological principles in it.  I covered a few of the main ones here, but there are many more that can be identified throughout the movie.  I would recommend this movie to anyone.  It was sad at parts, but it portrays a lot of aspects of life and psychology that we don't normally see in our daily lives.

Source:

King, L. A. (2008). The science of psychology: An appreciative view. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.