Ancient Accounts of Mind and Soul, Assessment Example

Humans are expected to develop according to how they are able to perceive the elements of the environment around them while determining how these elements are supposed to affect them. In many ways, the environment [including the people existing in it] are able shape the being of an individual. Nevertheless, it is still the person that decides how such matters would fully affect him, his growth and his personal development as an individual. In the novel Flight, Zits, the main character, is taken into several realms of development that shows how psychological behavior responds to the overall condition of the environment that a person exists in.

The novel represents Zits as a young boy at the age of 15. Being in such an age, it is expected that he could be undergoing such points of confusion, especially when it comes to identifying himself and his capacities that would lead him to growing into adulthood. Relatively, it could be realized that his life background should also be carried into account if his transformations and his attitude behind them are to be carried into account. For instance, his being a foster child due to being involved in a negligent family caused him to think of himself as a blank sky, someone who cannot be identified with anything else. This view upon himself makes him like a blank page of a book waiting to be written upon. Vulnerable to change and new experiences, Zits’ youth and hope for a better life brings him into the hands of mentors who he strongly believed in and trusted to shape his being accordingly.

The transformations of Zits into different characters could actually be noted by Rogers as the entrance of the young boy into the different realms of personal realization and characterization. His willingness to be someone has led him into accepting any possible training he could get from the people surrounding him, not necessarily thinking of whether or not they are giving him positive or negative advice. It could be understood that his enthusiasm to find his identity could be taken from his age and his basic thought that he is an empty individual. The desire to be identified accordingly, to be understood and somewhat to belong to someone is what makes Zits transformation validates his search for personal meaning and connection.

As he transforms to Hank Storm, he intends to take in the character of a hero and yet is considered an aggressive individual who takes on the option of resorting to crime when he does not know what to do with the situation anymore. He is easily provoked to take on action when he does not get is way. This attitude of his character could be largely related to his personal understanding of what is meant by power, authority and the desire to be followed.

The second transformation into an Indian boy points out his desire to return back to child. Every time, every individual develops that certain desire to become more engaged to a childhood they never hand. Piaget explains this theory as basically related to the ideal process of engaging in relative growth; this ideal approach is considered a determinable course of engaging in the option to be more mature through time. The third transformation as an Indian Tracker, the fourth transformation and the fifth transformation into becoming his own father all fall into one reason, his desire to search for meaning and reason.

Practically, it could be noted that with the ideal process of transformations that Zits took into account describes his inner desires, his inner thoughts and feelings about the matters that surrounds him. This could be supported by the ideal presentation of Freud on how human subconscious functions. In a way, even though the conscious self wants to take on the actual process of development it thinks is rightful and practical at the moment, the subconscious may describe otherwise. Understandably, it could be realized that with the subconscious dictating him what he wants to do, he does accordingly through his transformation. Most likely, the same manner of development occurs in every individual aiming to take on more mature moves in life. The decisions that one makes basically creates a distinct process of recreation and transformation that he uses to be able to manage an identity that could fully define the person he hopes to be.

References

Green, C.D. & Groff, P.R. (2003). Early psychological thought: Ancient accounts of mind and soul. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.

Brink, T.L. (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. “Unit One: The Definition and History of Psychology.” pp 9 [1]