This paper is an examination of individual development using characters from Todd Solondz's 1996 film about adolescence, Welcome to the Dollhouse. His movie focuses on 11-year-old Dawn Weiner as she begins junior high school, but it also provides perceptive portraits of her younger sister, older brother, parents, and other teenagers at differing stages. The film gives accurate examples of individuals in various phases of personality development, facing some of the classic conflicts outlined by Freud, Erikson, and others.
Dawn Weiner is a gawky, unattractive, unpopular girl who has been nicknamed "Weinerdog" by her fellow students. She is entering junior high school, and her only real friend is the even nerdier Ralphy, a sixth-grader who is watching Dawn's progress with genuine dread. That her best (and, apparently, only) friend is this goofy boy is significant in understanding Dawn. Kathleen Stassen Berger (19--) writes, "Having a best friend who is not the same age or sex correlates with being rejected or ignored by one's classmates and being unhappy" (p. 360). Dawn has been rejected by most of the people around her, and she is constantly struggle to find out where she might fit in.
Dawn is at the end of what Sigmund Freud labelled the latency phase, in his theory of the psychosexual stages through which individuals pass in their development. For Freud, latency is the dormant period between childhood and adolescence (Berger, 19--, p. 40); Dawn is emerging from being a child as she develops a new interest in sex and the possibilities it offers. She is greatly taken with the new lead singer in her brother's garage band. In her eyes, the acceptance of this "older man" starts to turn her into a woman, even though, at 11, she is still far from adulthood.
Erik Erikson expanded on Freud's theory of stage development, focusing not just on sexual development but also on psychosocial progress. In his scheme, Dawn is star...