DeSantiago Espinoza 1

Joel DeSantiago Espinzoa

Granillo

ENG 103

27 October 2019

Crazy Cartoons

One of the hardest things in life to cope with is the loss of a loved one. Something as

loaded as that causes a person to lose their sense of self. The Elric brothers from Fullmetal

Alchemist Brotherhood have experienced this and embark on a journey to resurrect their

deceased mother. This journey started because of the death of their mother and has only

escalated by their need to survive without either of their parents. The brothers become state

alchemists which are essentially the Police/Swat team in an effort to support their goal of

resurrection. Edward Elric the more focused on main character develops multiple methods of

coping, regressive behavioral habits, multiple complexes, and self destructive behavior are some

of the more explained and thorough .

The story itself revolves around the concept of a Philosopher's Stone which voids all the

rules of equivalent exchange during the practice of alchemy. Alchemy is a form of creation of

objects that the world this series takes place in uses as a power system, however the limitation of

alchemy is that materials needed to create the object or wish must be used up as ingredients

during the process. The fixation on this item is because it is the only thing that can bring back

their whole bodies, mother, create any wish of their mind, anything they would like without

having to exchange the necessary materials. Ed himself struggles with the moral concept of the

stone because they are created through unethical means. Ed himself does not want to create the

stone, however he does long for the power. His desire for the only power capable of rewinding
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time essentially is his desire for regression. Rather than accept their current state of life they

would exchange all their skills, experience, and knowledge to go back to the last moments of

their life.

Ed himself holds his mother to a high standard because of her being the one who raised

them, however they have painted her in the light of a saint rather than a mother. Sigmund Freud

would describe the boys and their situation as an oedipal complex because of their love towards

their mother and hatred for their father due to his desertion of them while young. In the eyes of

another psychologist like Alfred Adler the behavior while oedipal like is not the true definition.

Ed and his desire for his mother’s approval and love are something that can draw comparisons to

the complex, but because Ed does not see his father as a rival he breaks one of the main

principles of the Oedipus complex which would invalidate this statement; “As children we learn

to ride the waves of our passions, maximizing their potential to create moments of peak cohesion

and experiences of self authenticity; while minimizing the impact of their disintegrative and

destructive forces” (Davies par.7). The creation of Ed’s core issues and values stem from his

relationship with his mother being broken. Further on in Davies’ paper he goes on to say that the

natural sexual progression that children go through from the psychological perspective is

necessary to the proper development of a child without any complexes.

In order to further the story and reach his end goal he manifests an Orestes complex.

This complex is something that is less talked about, but in short it is a desire for a child to

completely isolate themselves from any parental figure. Ed is also seen in the internal conflict of

killing off his father in his mind,“And then there is the effect upon the successors, destined to

feel guilt for killing off their fathers: are we doomed to identify with our aggressors, repeating

what we do not understand, arrogant and self‐defeating? Or, are we expected to expiate our sins,
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purging ourselves with acts of self‐mutilation?” The constant reminders of failure throughout the

story like his brother’s incomplete body and his failure to resurrect his mother make him try and

repress all of those feelings through his actions, however reckless they might be. This in turn

creates another self destructive mechanism that Ed uses to further his mission and a reason of

justification for his actions when he is morally questioned.

Not only is Ed someone who is morally unstable he projects all of his hatred for those

willing to break the rules even though his entire story could have been avoided by following the

rules. The state of mind he was left in after his mother’s death was a mix of depression and

denial, because of everything that happened to his family and the dysfunction within, he projects

all of his bottled up emotions and explodes on innocent people. “Trauma also can directly disrupt

a child's emotion regulation by sensitizing the child to signs of trauma so that he or she becomes

disproportionately attentive to potential harm” (Dalgleish et al., [ 16] ; Ford, [ 21] ). “Children

who experience trauma are more consistently aroused and thus unable to appropriately monitor

their behaviors” (Dodge, Pettit, Bates, & Valente, [ 17] ). These associations with depression and

depresssion within adolescent children is something that can be seen in Ed’s charachter

throughout the story, however it is most seen in the third episode of the series with the increased

hostility he uses when referencing a god or religion in general.

Ed also suffers from a napoleon complex because of his short stature. The napoleonic

complex is a colloquial term used by psychologists to describe the inferiority complex when

referring to height. This is something that is used as comedic relief throughout the story is his

height, but it does have negative consequences for Ed. Because of his defensive nature when

talking about his height there are moments throughout the show where Ed will overexert himself

in order to show his competence. Along with this Ed believes himself to be above average when
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compared to other alchemists. Even within the third episode Ed when describing himself decides

to say that he is one of the closest things to a God within their world. (Hiromu Arakawa)4:35-

7:00 Episode 3) This moment of arrogance is met with a scene of acceptance by the other

characters who were lightheartedly joking about his height right before, because they realized

that he is capable and that he was the only one who stepped up to the occasion. The defense

mechanism to hide Ed's core issues and values is known by others and possibly use it to stop Ed

from developing overconfidence to stop him from harming himself from over exertion.

In terms of his social cognitive development he internalizes everything he feels he is

responsible for rather than what he is actually responsible for. During his attempt of resurrection

he loses his arm and his brother’s body and rather than claim fate was responsible or any external

uncontrollable force. Then immediately he pours all of his heart and determination into his idea

of rectifying his mistakes. When delving deeper into Ed’s character he created his theological

perspective from his failure. His failure is something that places himself in scale to the world of

religion. The push and pull factor from the show creates an interesting dynamic from science and

religion. By reducing everything to scientific terms the world turns to scientism. The loss of

people in the show continually taxes Edward metnally, with no acceptance of an outside force

the audience sees the mental taxation on a person develop more and more when only scientism is

applied. However the show also puts in more effective jabs at religion to showcase Ed as not

only a character of science but also a character that needs to accept some form of external force

in order to take some of the stress off of himself, because he is unable to do any of this he is

continuously taking himself down and projecting his frustrations on other people within the

show.
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Ed’s close association with soldiers and fellow alchemists in the military throughout the

series could be a good example of reciprocal determinism. In order to complete his quest for the

Philosopher’s Stone, Ed chose to join the military alchemists; in other words, he chose his

surrounding environment. In turn, the company of these disciplined, powerful people with strong

senses of justice affected the way Ed saw the world and his duty in it. He adopted many of the

creeds of these alchemists, including the notion of trying to use alchemy to protect and aid

others, rather than to destroy. This could also tie into modeling from the behavioral perspective,

as Ed is relatively young and impressionable and thus might be susceptible to molding from his

environment more easily than most people. This section of environmental molding is something

that helps contribute to the way his mannerisms and behaviors are structured. Often looked over

is the fact that Edward himself is 16 years old throughout most of the series and ruined his life at

the age of 6~7 (loss of exact information due to translations and publication errors). Forcing

himself to live a life that adults have trouble coping with and end up developing PTSD and other

forms of trauma from, since he was 6~7 created his person and is something that is often

forgotten about or just pushed away from society. This is seen in some low income areas where

children have to fight against all odds and create a life they can be proud of, however the

obstacles that are laid out are almost insurmountable for most and because of that they are seen

as lesser than those who have everything.

Ed also has a fairly strong sense of self-efficacy(self-efficacy is therefore a measure of a

perceived ability) especially for someone his age. He is constantly challenging himself in every

area of his life, and when he meets one goal, he immediately sets another. He has great faith in

himself, and while he recognizes his shortcomings and the obstacles that will inevitably slow

him down, he believes completely that he has the strength and willpower to do virtually
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anything, even reverse the alchemic laws of equivalent exchange. An example of his self-

efficacy occurred at a fairly young age, when he was being fitted with metal prosthetics to

replace the two limbs he lost. When told that the recovery period for such a difficult operation

was usually several years, he immediately swore that he’d recover in a single year. He then

proceeded to bear the obstacles of the operation and strengthen his body unwaveringly, despite

pain, until he had reached that goal.This mindset while powerful is something that could only

prove to hurt Edward because he continues to push himself to the point of over exertion as stated

before.

The show itself is something that has multiple interpretations on multiple subjects.

Psychologically the story continues to develop when there is time in between major moments.

Never wasting a moment and always developing characters. The show displays how the defense

mechanisms and desire for regression can unhealthily be used as goals. Self destructive behavior

and constant reminders of failure impact the lives of many but few use it as a source of

motivation, the show Fullmetal Alchemist uses this unorthodox fuel to expand upon its story and

show that negativity can be used as efficiently as positivity it will however mentally destroy you

and hold you back from your full potential.

Works cited

Davies, Jody Messler. “From Oedipus Complex to Oedipal Complexity: Reconfiguring (Pardon
the Expression) the Negative Oedipus Complex and the Disowned Erotics of Disowned
Sexualities.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues, vol. 25, no. 3, May 2015, pp. 265–283. Academic
Search Complete, EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10481885.2015.1034547. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.

Eisold, Kenneth. “Succeeding at Succession: the Myth of Orestes.” Journal of Analytical

Psychology, vol. 53, no. 5, Nov. 2008, pp. 619–632. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1111/j.1468-5922.2008.00755.x. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.
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Pat‐Horenczyk, Ruth, et al. “Emotion Regulation in Mothers and Young Children Faced with
Trauma.” Infant Mental Health Journal, vol. 36, no. 3, May 2015, pp. 337–348. Academic
Search Complete, EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/imhj.21515. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.