So today I was in the mood to analyze some random Disney character's psychology. This time I'm talking about Simba.
A dude named "Alfred Adler" established the theory of Individual Psychology. He believed that people used "safeguarding tendencies", patterns of behaviour to protect their exaggerated sense of self-steem against public disgrace, to hide their inflated self-image and to mantain their current life style.
Adler set three different kind of this safeguarding tendencies: excuses, aggression and withdrawal.
This last tendency, withdrawal, happens when one unconsciously escapes life's problems by setting up a distance between themselves and those problems.
Adler acknowledged four ways to safeguard through withdrawal: moving backward, standing still, hesitating, and constructing obstacles. This time we're talking about standing still and hesitating.
Those who stand still simply don't move in any direction, they avoid responsibilities by ensuring themselves against any threat of failure. They don't make attempts so they don't have the possibility to not accomplish their goals. Pretty much Hakuna Matata, isn't it?
I know, I've only shown Timon instead of Simba, but remember he's saying those things to Simba. Nothing against Timon nor Pumbaa, to them their philosophy seemed to work well, but unlike them, Simba had this main responsibility about being the king, which he avoided because of this, the things Timon and Pumbaa told him that ended up building his new life style, his new way to face (not really) problems after his father's death.
Well then, there's hesitating too. Some people hesitate when they have to confront something difficult, often using excuses, especially such as "it's too late now" or related.
Simba needed to return to the Pride Lands and confront Scar as the real king he was, but hesitated because of the difficulty that implied taking the throne after aparently causing the death of his father. We know in the end everything goes well, but it was until Simba finally accepted his responsibility.
Again, I'm not trying to blame Timon and Pumbaa, just pointing the fact that it didn't work the same with Simba.
Also, there weren't therapists in the Pride Lands, but if there were, Simba definitely needed to go to one lol. If you avoid responsibilities like Simba, the best you can do is going to therapy, so please take care of your mental health y'all! 💕
All the info about Alfred Adler and Individual Psychology was taken from the book Theories of Personality by Jess Feist & Gregory J. Feist.
