Dr. Malcolm Crowe in The Sixth Sense movie as heroic archetype - Essay Example

The function of the hero myth is to develop a person’s awareness of his strengths and weaknesses in order to face life’s problems” (Garbis, 2002). Within this myth, the death of the hero functions as a key to the concept that the individual has gained maturity and has been reborn into the image of the father or mentor. The third stage of the individuation process is known as transcendence and is that stage in the maturation process in which the unconscious and the conscious minds merge to enable the person to experience their full potential.

While this would seem to suggest a new theory of human development, it is, instead, an idea that is buried in our earliest myths and legends and continues to play out in our modern stories and films. For example, Dr Malcolm in the film The Sixth Sense represents a heroic archetype who has to go through three main stages including the forced quest, climatic battle and the return as inevitable steps required to achieve the ultimate goal in his life. The first stage of the hero archetype is the forced quest.

This is illustrated in the film through Dr. Malcolm’s obvious feelings of guilt regarding previous failures, primarily in the form of Vincent, a former patient who entered long-term psychiatric care after Dr. Malcolm proved unable to help him stop hearing voices. This is contrasted against the doctor’s equally obvious enthusiasm to help people. Through his conversation with his wife and his responses to the congratulations he receives, it becomes clear that Dr. Malcolm is honored and pleased to receive an award for his work, but more interested in what he can do to help children overcome their various issues.

His continued preoccupation with Vincent manifests itself in Vincent’s physical presence within the master bathroom the night of the award. Even here, seeing Vincent as a grown young man standing naked in his bathroom after having broken into the house, Malcolm’s primary concern is to