Essay from film “Mereka bilang, Saya Monyet” with the Psychoanalysis approach

The film with the title "They Say, I'm Monkey" released in 2007 invited quite a lot of
attention of the audience, especially young people. Directed by Djenar Maesa Ayu who is
also the author of the novel, who also has its own charm.

Briefly, this film tells a woman named Adjeng who works as a writer. He wrote to make ends
meet. But, the childhood treatment he got from his parents made him grow up with a chaotic
psychic. The film which tells about the dark past has become a scourge that dictates the
direction of one's future. This can be seen very clearly in Adjeng, a young woman who is a
writer. He is still trapped in the shadows of his past. Adjeng tried everything to smooth his
career.

Various abuses that were often accepted by Adjeng as a child and the treatment of parents
who were unfit to shape Adjeng's adult character became ambiguous. On the one hand, he
was very aggressive when with friends and lovers. However, on the other hand he looks so
passive when dealing with his mother.

In this essay, the writer wants to analyze the film using the Psychoanalysis approach.
Sigmund Freud is a figure who developed a branch of psychoanalysis, in order to study
human psychological behavior.

Freud revealed 3 components in the psychoanalytic approach:

1. Id: the wildest part of the soul, potentially evil. Some interpret ID as human passions that
are concerned with the need for the stomach down. On the other hand, ID, does not consider
the consequences of fulfilling its desires. In essence, IDs are the evil part of humans who risk
harming others and themselves.

2. Ego: actually not much different from ID. EGO is also interpreted as lust to fulfill lust. It's
just that there has been control from humans themselves. There have been considerations, and
have thought about the consequences of what he has done. To be exact, EGO is an ID
controller. A concrete example of EGO is a rule.

3. Superego: or more commonly referred to as a CONSCIENCE HEART. The formation and

development of the super ego is largely determined by the direction or guidance of the
environment from an early age.
The author wants to discuss the character of Adjeng with a psychoanalytic approach. In the
film, Adjeng, who from a young age, had received abuse from his parents, had a very chaotic
inner upheaval. On the one hand she can be very wild and on the other hand she can be
passive when dealing with his mother. Judging from the 3 components revealed by Freud,
Adjeng experienced the whole. In the Id component, Adjeng had gotten it when she was a
child, she was harassed by his stepfather and she also saw a scene that he should not have
seen at his age at that time. This caused his psychic development to not be good and lasted
until she was an adult, which she did the same thing that his mother did, namely "sleeping"
with any man, including a senior writer whose career was almost dead to smoothen his work
or writings to be published. The second component, the ego, breaks all the rules attached to
the norms in society, which are not appropriate as women to do so. Going to the bar,
smoking, and "sleeping" with any man, has become his routine, the reason she did it all,
because of the economic factors that wrapped her and also his childhood trauma faced with
the disharmony of his parents. In the last component, Superego, he also clearly experienced
it, which he tried to suppress as much as possible his rebellious feelings to his mother,
because he wanted to not hurt his mother's feelings, although ultimately his emotions were
also out of control in the middle of the film, where there was a scene of her mother angry
because of bad news about her getting into the newspaper.

In addition to formal education at school, family education in children, becomes the most
important thing that can affect the development of the child later when she was a teenager or
even an adult. Children will grow into real human beings if they are educated from the
family, especially parents are really in accordance with what they should. In the presence of
children, parents should keep meeting content that is inappropriate for children but should
also introduce these things to children slowly. In this film, it is illustrated that the content that
is only suitable for adults is in fact known by children, Adjeng who was still in elementary
school saw when his mother and stepfather had sexual relations. Adjeng's behavior like that is
a rebellion that he did against his past. From here again the community must understand how
to educate children so that their behavior does not deviate from applicable norms.

All components (psychoanalysis) experienced by Adjeng is due to his childhood experience

of his parents. Many parents if one of their partners misbehaves, the outlet is addressed to
their own children, Adjeng feels the same way. The author thought that in the year the film
was released (2007), parents' thoughts might still be like that, but judging further, it was not.
Viewed from the side of the writer who is not yet a parent, if they already have an initial
commitment that whatever happens between them, the child must still be well thought out of
their development and do not let the child imitate the bad behavior of both parents whether it
is fighting, cheating, etc. Because, basically, the child has no fault, the child is present
because of both parents, so it is fitting for parents to think seriously about their own child's
development, and of course the child follows all of his parents' behavior that is seen directly,
all the behaviors and attitudes that parents do directly impact the psychological growth of the
child. Thank you, mam.