Personality Structure of Michael Foster
development.
49
So that, the result of this imperfection stages is an unbalanced personality.
In this case, Foster had uncompleted psychosexual development in his oral stage
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cause of the absence of his parents in life. There were no parts in this movie which illustrated how the relationship between Foster and his parents were.
Later, the role of parents was taken over by his sister, Melinda Foster. Her ability to take on that role wa
s able to reduce the imbalance in Foster‟s personality. Furthermore, Foster depended on Melinda psychologically.
The imbalance of Foster‟s personality was aggravated by the death of Melinda. As her brother, Foster loved and took care his sister so much. They
shared their joys and sorrows when they were together. Foster knew that his sister really enjoyed her life. Until her disease made her lose her blonde hair. At the end
of her time, Melinda became bald. Foster was sad seeing Melinda‟s bad condition.
He knew how she really loved her hair. When she started to lose her hair, Foster was getting sick of it. That event left
a deepest trace on Foster‟s life and became the unforgettable moment Foster always remembered.
That incident ruined Foster‟s personality which was not balanced from the
beginning. The de sire for her sister and Melinda‟s role as the surrogate parents
were too big in controlling himself. He needed to express his desire and his feeling for her sister, especially the bad thing that happened
in his sister‟s last
49
Ferdinand Zaviera, Op. Cit., p. 115.
50
According to Freud, there are 5 stages of psychosexual development. They are oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage. Oral stage occurs during the first
year of life. It is a condition when a baby experiences the world through his mouth by sucking his mother‟s nipple. It means a baby needs the role of parents, especially his mother. If there are
imperfections in this stage, it will have an impact in the next stage. Ibid.,
p. 110115.
time . Foster‟s inability to express and show them made him found another way
and object for reduce the anxiety and avoid the pain. The following discussion will explain how Foster is controlled by his strong desire and how the personality
structure of him has the big role of doing Foster‟s action. From the previous analysis, Foster shows that he gets the bad experiences
in his past; first is the absence of parents and second is the death of Melinda. Both of those accidents influence
Foster‟s action in his present time where his id, ego, and superego become increasingly unbalanced. The desire and impulse coming
from id are too big to controlled and his superego is too weak to seek for the perfection
and judge the id‟s effort in getting pleasure. On the other hand, Foster‟s ego is unable to balance his personal needs and wishes with his social duties and
realistic limitations. That unstable personality creates the conflict between the id and superego. For preventing this
conflict and maintaining superego‟s stability with reality,
Foster‟s ego uses some defense mechanisms.
Picture 23 00:56:05 Picture 24 01:11:10
Picture 25 00:59:26
The first two images, pictures 23 and 24, are Melinda Foster, Foster‟s sister. The
pictures above show us how she looks like in her daily. Melinda was described as a beautiful girl who had shoulder-length blonde hair and was around 20 years old.
During her life time, she joined a cheerleader team. As a cheerleader, her hair was her crown and her body was really slim and tall as they are seen on picture 25.
From that picture, it can be seen that Melinda and Foster are so close. She takes care of her brother and Foster really loves her. He likes giving a kiss and hug to
show his love and support to his sister. The explanations above show that Melinda is a beautiful and talented girl.
In her youth, she joins the cheerleader team and gets the support from Foster. The absence of parents‟ role in Foster‟s life puts Melinda as an important part of
Foster‟s life. She gives much impact on Foster and influences Foster‟s personality. Melinda‟s existence in Foster‟s life is able to fill the role of parents
which is needed by him. Until the day of Melinda‟s death comes. The feeling of loss subsequently changes into a desire which grows in the
Foster‟s id. This desire is greater and greater as time goes by and becomes an
unwanted impulse. The ego, that feels threatened by this impulse, tries to reduce it by pushing down the impulse to the unconscious. This process called repression.
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By doing repression, Foster‟s ego manages to get its balance again. The ego guides Foster to find the pleasure id and the perfection superego from
being a medical technician for it relates to Melinda‟s illness. In this case, Foster‟s superego works well. This job helps Foster‟s ego to reduce the impulse and
express the desire of Melinda through the medical devices. So that, Foster can start to live his own live without any shadows of Melinda
‟s past. It can be seen from the appearance of his wife below that does not have similarity with Melinda.
Picture 26 00:59:17 Picture 27 01:00:01
From those pictures, there is no similarity between Foster‟s wife and
Melinda. His wife is described as a beautiful woman with short black hair and medium weight. It is contrary to the Melinda‟s appearance as mentioned earlier.
So that, it can be concluded that the process of repression that the ego does is success in pushing down the impulse. The impulse is transformed into a good
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Repression is a kind of defense mechanism to reduce the anxiety by pushing down the impulse to the unconscious. The impulse must be something that is uncomfortable.
Jess Feist Gregory J. Feist, op. cit., p. 35.
effort where Foster works as a med tech. Finally, it forms Foster‟s characteristics in good side; kind, responsible, and lovable husband and father.
But apparently, this process cannot last long. The impulse which is muted by the ego does not change. It forces to enter into the consciousness and creates
the greater anxiety. This anxiety is difficult to controlled by Foster. He feels himself gripped by the anxiety. To avoid this pain, Foster‟s ego transforms the
impulse into other forms. This process called displacement. Displacement, based on Ferdinand Zaviera, is a way to show up an impulse through adopting a disguise
that is directly opposite its original form.
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By using this defense mechanism, Foster‟s ego consciously takes control of the id in satisfying the impulse.
Furthermore, his ego guides Foster to look for another object that can reduce his untouchable tension to stabilize the anxiety that exists within him.
As mentioned earlier, there were no scenes of Foster ‟s parents and Foster
got the imperfect of his oral stage. A person in this condition will tend to want the things associated with the mount, such as eat, drink, sniff, smoke, and many
more.
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That happened to Foster when he was adult. The scenes below show that Foster loves to kiss his sister named Melinda Foster.
52
Ferdinand Zaviera, op. cit. p. 109.
53
Ibid., p. 115.
Picture 28 00:56:11 Picture 29 01:11:42
From pictures above, Foster kisses Melinda as a result of the imperfection in his oral stage, where his id cannot get the pleasure by suck
ing his mother‟s nipple. This satisfaction should be obtained when a person is in the oral stage.
But, in Foster‟s case, this stage develops imperfectly and has an impact when Foster was adult. Foster‟s id demands the satisfaction and the ego tries to push the
tension by changing the object; nipples to mouth. Later, Melinda becomes the appropriate object in getting the pleasure by kissing her mouth. Doing this action,
the tension in Foster‟s id can be reduced slowly. The process of displacement that Foster‟s ego does here is changing the motive of sucking the nipples to kissing. In
this part, Foster‟s ego is in a condition where it is a good connector between id and superego. Although they work with different principle, the ego maintains the
stable relationship between them; id gets the satisfaction, superego feels the perfection, and ego finds the appropriate object. Finally, the changing of impulse
can be accepted socially and culturally. Actually, the defense mechanism, which is done by ego, is to reduce all
impulses from id. So, the impulses changes into something that can be accepted by society. However, if the anxiety is too big and dominant, the process of
defense mechanism can turn into bad things. The death of Melinda becomes the
great cause of that c hange. Foster‟s youth was the moment that Foster
remembered the most. He could not forget his sister, what happened to her, and how tormented she was struggling from her cancer. When his sister died, Foster
lost something in his life and it left a serious trace in Foster‟s personality that was
already unbalanced. Those feelings become the impulse which pushes Foster‟s
ego to do the repression. But, the result is the greater anxiety. So, Foster‟s ego
relooks for the object in the real world to displace Melinda. Furthermore, his ego consciously guides Foster to do something in order to get the satisfaction. So that,
the pressure in the ego becomes less. The process of Foster‟s ego displacement can be seen below.
Picture 30 00:07:30 Picture 31 00:17:58
The two pictures above are Foster‟s victims. The girl on picture 30 was Leah
Templeton and the girl on picture 31 was Casey Welson. Leah was described as a young girl who was pretty, tall, and had a blonde hair. Besides, Casey was around
twenties that was talkative, funny, beautiful, and also had blonde hair. As it is seen on those pictures, both of them
have the similarities with Foster‟s sister, Melinda. They are around 20 years old, beautiful and have healthy shoulder-
length blonde hair.
From the description above, it can be analyzed that Foster still thinks about his sister‟s image even though she died many years ago. This condition
makes Foster cannot express his feeling towards her because the object, Melinda, does not exist. Unconsciously, that dominant feeling controls Foster. Later,
Foster‟s ego guides Foster to look for the girls who have the shoulder-length blonde hair and kidnap them in order to satisfy the id by slashing their scalps.
Foster‟s superego, in this condition, is too weak because of the dominance id. So, the superego is unable to tell him that these actions are contrary to the moral value
because slashing means doing harmful . Foster‟s ego tries to consider the demands
of id and satisfies them. Finally, by kidnapping the girls, his ego could reduce the tens
ion in Foster‟s id. This situation explicates that Foster is fully controlled by his dominant id which really wants to show the feeling of love to his sister. And
Foster‟s superego is too weak to negotiate with the id about moral standard. Actually, kidnaping and slashing the scalps are not new case that Foster
does in his life. Foster had done it for many years. After he lost his sister, he started to collect
the girls‟ scalp that had shoulder-length blonde hair like his sister. It can be seen from the picture below.
Picture 32 01:19:01
From the death of his sister, it can be seen that Foster had collected many scalps as it is seen on picture 32. He did and put the scalps in his
sister‟s room that he prepared at his old house. In that room, Foster had a refrigerator. It was used to
keep the scalps in order to put them in a good condition. Those scalps could reduce the tension in Foster‟s id for a while because Foster could not find the
exact s ame scalp with his sister‟s. Besides, the scalp‟s condition that no longer
exist made Foster still looked for another scalp to satisfy his id. Based on the explanation above, it can be known that Foster is controlled
by his id started from the death of his sister. Foster‟s id is in fully charge to choose what Foster must do and take an action. He cannot think properly or
decide whether it is right or wrong. On the other side, Foster‟s ego cannot reduce
the urge coming from Foster‟s id that wants to get the satisfaction by getting the displacement of his sister. It is too dominant to be controlled where his superego
demands the perfection. What Fos ter‟s ego does unconsciously is still looking for
another objects to satisfy the id. Another form of displacement in Foster also appears in another scene.
After kidnapping the girls and slashing their scalp, Foster kept them in the refrigerator. Foster described those scalps as the symbol of his sister, Melinda.
The following pictures below show how it is.
Picture 33 01:18:14 Picture 34 01:18:34
It can be seen from the pictures above that after getting the scalps, Foster sniffed and talked to them. The feeling of missing her sister that Foster felt over the years
increases the tension in his id. It forced the ego to satisfy the id again in other ways. For reducing that tension, Foster
‟s ego transformed the impulse from Foster‟s id became another thing besides kidnaping the girls and getting their
scalp. The description above shows Foster‟s ego effort to reduce the tension and
satisfy the id again. The impulse is transformed in form of imagination; Melinda revived. This stage forces ego to indicate another way to manage the satisfaction
in id and the perfection in superego. The process of getting the pleasure is by sniffing the scalps and talking to them as they are regarded as a representation of
Melinda, where he can show and express his feeling towards her. The actions Foster taken above is fully controlled by his id. It is also the form of continuation
of the imperfection of psychosexual development associated with the mouth. By sniffing the scalps and talking to them which is similar with
Melinda‟s, Foster‟s id
gets the satisfaction and pleasure and the tension coming from his id can be reduced. Moreover, the demand from superego for can be fulfilled.
The conflict between Foster‟s id, ego, and superego appears in another scene. After kidnapping Casey, his second victim, Foster brought her to his old
house. He put her on the surgical chair which was already prepared by him. When Foster was preparing the tools, Casey asked him why he did not kill her. The
quotation below shows the situation. Casey
: Please, just kill me. Kill me, please. Please, just kill me. Just kill me. Why won’t you just kill me?
Foster : Hair needs a healthy blood flow. If you are dead, pause
Casey : No, please stop, please.
Foster : Then it dies to
Casey : Stop, please.
Foster :
I’m sorry but I can’t. I can’t. Slashing her scalp and crying I can’t stop.
01:21:10-01:21:56
From the dialogue above, we know that what Foster ‟s ego does is to get
Casey‟s blonde hair and give the pleasure for the id. In addition, Melinda‟s condition, who dies without having the hair, makes Foster become obsessed with
the blonde hair. Foster‟s action that looks for the blonde hair on girls and slashes their scalps become
Foster‟s ego. When Foster‟s ego tries to satisfy the id, the ego also finds the obstacle from the superego. But, the ego knows what makes its
effort reach the goal. On the other side, the demand of id is contrary to the one of
super ego‟s subsystem
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, called conscience. However, because of the dominance of id, the feeling of guilt arises.
The analysis above explicates that id in Foster self who wants to get and have
Casey‟s blonde hair is dominant. Foster cannot stop doing his action even though he knows it is contrary to the moral value. It is because his id is more
dominant than his superego. His ego realizes that to satisfy the id, the ego should keep do the slashing scalp.
It is because Casey‟s hair is similar with Foster‟s sister and the scalp needs fresh blood to stay healthy. If Foster kills her, it means the
hair also dies. This condition makes Foster does not kill Casey from the beginning. Besides getting the pleasure, the process of slashing also brings the
uncomfortable memory that Foster pushed down over years ago. He cries when he sees Casey because he remembers the pain Melinda felt while slowly losing her
hair. The last
defense mechanism that Foster‟s ego unconsciously does is projection. According to Morgan, projection mea
ns attributing someone‟s own motives, ideas, or feelings to someone else.
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It is done by the ego because of the excessive anxiety. To repress it, the ego transforms the impulse to the external
object. In Foster‟s case, kidnapping someone is not a good thing. It means there
will always be an obstacle in doing this action. When it happens, blaming
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The superego has two subsystems, the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we should not
do, whereas the ego-ideal develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we should do. Guilt is the ego acts contrary to the moral standards of superego.
Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist, ibid., p. 30.
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Clifford T. Morgan Richard A. King, Introduction to Psychology, fourth edition, Japan: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1971, p. 376.
someone is form of projection that Foster‟s ego does as a way to reduce the anxiety. Foster kidnaps some girls who have the similarity with his sister,
Melinda, just to get their scalp. Foster‟s desire to get their blonde hair gets the
resistance or obstacle from some people around him. Realizing there are some resistances, Foster‟s id produces the anxiety excessively. Foster‟s ego realizes it,
but his id is too dominant to take down the anxiety and still wants to get the satisfaction.
In ordering to push down the anxiety, Foster‟s ego finds the external object; Casey. Foster blames all action he does on her. He acts as if all the trouble
is done by Casey.
Picture 35 00:37:23 Picture 36 00:39:44
From those pictures, we can see that in fulfilling his dominant id, Foster found some troubles. The first trouble came from Alan Denado when Foster kidnapped
Casey, his second victim. Alan who was on the same road with Foster found the oddity on him. It was started from the car lights which were gone and spilled
paint. The way Foster answered Alan‟s questions and Foster‟s sudden action
gained the curiosity on Alan. Then, Alan chose following Foste r‟s car and
interrupting his action. Foster was angry for what Alan does. First, after knowing Foster‟s oddity, Alan called 911 to report his action. Before the call was
connected, Foster hit him on his head using the shovel. Second, Alan still tried to run away from Foster. Knowing his action, Foster stabbed Alan many times using
the screwdriver he had on his car until he passed away. Then, he blamed Casey for what he did.
Picture 37 00:53:27 Picture 38 00:53:40
The second trouble came at the gas station. When Foster wanted to refuel his car, Casey tried
to attract an active worker‟s attention at the gas station by yelling. Her scream attracted
the worker‟s attention. Knowing that there was a girl which was asking for help, that worker tried to help her out of the car. Before he could help
Casey, Foster sprayed him with gasoline and threw a lighter at him. He was burned alive by Foster.
From the explanation above, Foster kills people around him who want to help Casey. First, he kills Alan by stabbing him. Second, he burns the active
worker to get rid of him. Because of the imperfection of psychosexual development in the beginning, his ego becomes weak for being a good connector
between the id and the superego. The id wants his demands to be met; his ego is completely influenced by his id where killing is the ego‟s effort to fulfill the
demands of id and blaming is a way to reduce the anxiety; his superego realizes
that killing is contrary to the moral standard but still needs the perfection. In Foster‟s perspective, killing them is a good way. Foster‟s id considers that it is the
fastest way to get rid of them. Besides, Foster is influenced by his dominant id. After killing them, the anxiety grows excessively. Later, the ego guides Foster to
blame all his action on Casey as it can be seen from the quotation below
Foster :
Look what you’ve made me do. He is died because of you
Casey : Oh my God. No No No
Foster : Shut up Hit her on her face
Casey :
Please, don’t do. No No Screaming
00:41:55-00:42:40
The quotation above explicates that Foster does not want to admit that he is the only one who kills Alan and the active worker from gas station. Foster‟s id sends
the impulse to Foster‟s ego that there is a disruption around him. Foster‟s ego that gets the excessive anxiety from the id unconsciously uses defense mechanism
named projection. This defense mechanism helps Foster to avoid the unpleasant emotion from the trouble he did by ascribing his mistake to Casey. Casey is a
medium to dispense the anxiety. Foster refuses the fact that he kills people just to keep Casey by his side. His id influences him by saying Casey causes all troubles.
He defends himself by blaming Casey for what he does. In this case, Foster‟s id takes control of Foster and his ego is forced to satisfy his id by reducing the
anxiety using projection. Based on the analyses above, Foster suffers a personality problem which is
caused by the absence of parents in his life. His psychosexual development
becomes imperfect. But, the presence of Melinda, his sister, can reduce the imbalance. She takes the parents‟ role in Foster‟s life. The imbalance of Foster‟s
personality structure is aggravated by the death of Melinda. He loses the important part of his life. The anxiety which comes from the id is big. To restore
his self- image and avoid the excessive anxiety, Foster‟s ego uses defense
mechanism, such as repression, displacement and projection. All of them are done by Foster‟s ego when Foster‟s id takes control on Foster and Foster‟s superego
cannot maintain it due to the weakness. But, the impulse which is pushed down in the process of repression forces
to enter into the consciousness. It builds the great anxiety. So that, Foster‟s ego does displacement. The forms of displacement that Foster
‟s ego does is kidnapping the girls who have similarities
with his sister‟s. Foster‟s sister, Melinda, has a shoulder-length blonde hair that becomes her trademark. She loses
her hair when she dies. It leaves a big impact on Foster and further exacerbates Foster‟s personality structure. He obsesses with the blonde hair for it represents
Melinda. Later, after kidnapping those girls, Foster slashes their scalp and keeps them in his private room. It is done by him to displace the feeling of missing her
sister that he cannot expresses. Besides, the result of imperfection in his oral stage also influences the ego to get the satisfaction by doing a thing associated with the
mouth to displace his mother‟s nipple. In doing his action, Foster has to face some disturbances coming from
people around him. To get rid of them, Foster should kill them and he blames all his action on his second victim named Casey as a form of projection that his id
does. From Foster‟s actions, it explicates that Foster‟s id takes full control against Foster‟s ego. The id forces Foster‟s ego to satisfy what the id wants. Foster‟s ego
which is too weak and his superego that wants to get the perfection cannot maintain that urge coming from the id
. Therefore, all of Foster‟s action is controlled by his dominant id.
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