Blockbuster project¨C Phobia Time.
- 3. Phobia ? Phobia. A persistent irrational fear of an object, activity, or situation. ? Physiological responses: sweating, nausea, tumbling, racing heart, shortness of breath.
- 4. note In order to be considered a phobia the efforts to avoid the feared thing or the response to encountering it must severely impact some area of the person¡¯s normal functions. case in point¡
- 5. media
- 6. Jake the dog Finn the human Meet Finn and Jake, one is the last known human on earth, the other is a talking shape shifting dog. And oh yeah, they¡¯re brothers, more or less. They are also the greatest adventurers/heroes/warriors in a land called Ooo. Meet the guys adventure time
- 7. The story so far Finn and Jake are ¡°pooting¡± on a newt for stealing some boots when suddenly the newt runs out into the ocean. Jake runs after the newt unloading some fresh ¡°poot¡¯s¡± on his head but Finn, upon realizing that he has to go into the ocean (and not just a lake, or a puddle, or a well, or a river, etc¡) is stricken with panic and fear like never before. fun fact: A phobia of the ocean is know as Thalassophobia. The word Thalasso is Greek for ocean or sea adventure time
- 9. The connection is¡ Finn¡¯s Phobia ¡and jakes attempts to help him battle it. Fin¡¯s symptoms of phobia include: ? Heavy breathing ? Sweating ? trembling ? racing heart ? a rumbly tummy ? and a strange spectral entity that emerges from his belly button. Valid? All these symptoms are valid except for that spectral entity. connection/validity
- 10. connection/validity Jake has a plan. Jake want¡¯s to help his buddy get over his fear so he devises a three (but actually four) part plan. Step one: Put Finn, in his bed, in the middle of the ocean. Step two: Ditch the bed and have Finn float in the ocean. Step three: Jake pushes fin under the water with his jowls (don¡¯t forget; shape shifting dog). Validity. Jake¡¯s plan is whats known as Exposure therapy, specifically a type called In-vivo or ¡°real life¡± where the patient is exposed to increasing doses of their fear inducing stimuli in a real world situation. Is Jake¡¯s plan valid? Surprisingly, yes (kind of). fun fact: Sometimes In-vivo therapy (especially in instances like what we¡¯re seeing here) is actually called ¡°Flooding¡±.
- 11. adventure time And so of course¡ Jake¡¯s plan totally fails.
- 12. ly just more of the same but this time Finn gets to ride in a submarine rather than be Validity. No longer so much ¡°Flooding¡± this approach may actually be more akin to standard Exposure therapy where the stimuli is introduced in more gradual stages. Is plan #4 valid? Seems like still yes. not pleased connection/validity
- 13. adventure time Of course Jake¡¯s plan fails again. The submarine goes into a deep spooky hole and basically falls apart. Finn unwittingly inflates his dive suite which immediately takes him to the surface while Jake is stuck (in his own doggy dive suite mind you) on the bottom of the ocean. Will Finn overcome his fear of the deep in a valiant effort to rescue his best friend? fun fact: Scuba suites for dogs really exist. And then more story.
- 14. connection/validity Nope. Rather than face his fear Finn decides that the only way he¡¯s going to save his friend is by knocking himself out and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. This approach does get him down there but once he comes to, and realizes where he is, he¡¯s so stricken with fear that Jake has to save him. Is Finn¡¯s plan valid? Not even a little bit.
- 15. connection/validity Once on land Finn is again confronted by the spectral form of his fear. His fear berates him telling him he¡¯s a coward and that he¡¯ll never be the great hero of his dreams. This bums him out. Like a lot. But is this uncertainty the cause of his phobia? There are three generally accepted ways to acquire a phobia these are: ? 1 classical conditioning= You experience a bad thing. ? 2 vicarious acquisition= You see bad thing happen to someone. ? 3 informational or instructional acquisition= Someone tells you about a bad thing. Validity? Although feelings of shame could lead to ¡°social phobia¡± it isn¡¯t an accepted cause of a ¡°specific phobia¡± like Finn¡¯s
- 16. ¡some spectral wise men show up (also from Finn¡¯s belly button. don¡¯t ask me.) and they tell him that he is a great hero, the greatest hero in all of Ooo in fact. And on top of that they also tell him that having flaws is just another part of being a hero and that it¡¯s ok if he¡¯s afraid of the ocean. And so now, with his new found confidence, Finn banishes his fear back into his guts for what may, or may not be, eternity. connection/validity And finally Validity? Although the words of the wise men may have bolstered Finn¡¯s confidence when it comes to hero-ing there is no evidence that a few kind words about ones ability to kick butt can cure a phobia. Can the wise men fix Finn¡¯s fear? Nope.
- 17. Finn¡¯s phobia actually originated with a perilous sea voyage that happened when he was a baby (classical conditioning) but he was so young he doesn¡¯t even remember it. This sort of not remembering after something bad happens is also known as ¡°repression¡±. connection/validity incidentally Will Finn ever find a cure? Out of all the treatments for phobias including systematic desensitization, progressive relaxation, virtual reality, modeling, and medication; hypnotherapy would probably be Finn¡¯s best bet.
- 18. connection/validity My thoughts I¡¯m fairly certain that there was no consideration for psychology in the making of this episode. Although Jakes attempts to help Finn may look a bit like real science (maybe) it feels a bit more like the sink-or-swim school of get the hell over it. As stated before the basis for Finn¡¯s phobia was probably that harrowing sea voyage of his youth. That said doing away with his spectral antagonist would have only served to cure him of any social anxiety he may have been feeling as an unpleasant side effect of his actual phobia Once again though I doubt that this was truly considered by the writers. All in all I feel like the intent of the episode was to discuss how we deal, or don¡¯t deal, with our fear and how even though it may always be a part of us, we don¡¯t have to ever let it define us. Of course I may be reading too much into it.