With(in) Myself: Narcissistic Trajectories in the Animated Film “The Snowman” (1982)

ABSTRACT

This essay follows the trajectory of the 1982 animated short film “The Snowman.” The film’s depiction of a relationship between a young child and an anthropomorphized snowman is used to explore a Freudian conception of the “normal” course of human sexual development. Specifically, the understanding of the snowman as a creative extension of the child is utilized to examine the shaping of narcissistic processes and negotiation of object choice, as well as the complex ways these can continue to interweave through psychical and external realities to shape the experiencing of love.

KEYWORDS:

• Development
• Freud
• narcissism
• love
• sexuality
• animated film
• psychoanalysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Tocatly

Karen Tocatly is a doctoral candidate at the Clinical Psychology Program at The City College of New York. She is a therapist in training at The Psychological Center and an extern at The New York Psychoanalytic Institute, where she treats children and adults.