Running Head: HARVEY WEINSTEIN 1

Harvey Weinstein and the Eight Perspectives

Alyssa Anne Granger

Tarleton State University

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Harvey Weinstein and the Eight Perspectives

Harvey Weinstein was a successful film producer in the United States. He worked on

popular movies including Lion, Paddington, Scream, and Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. Harvey

contributed as a philanthropist to multiple foundations such as the American Foundation for

AIDS Research, UNICEF, and Oceana. Weinstein has five children.

In October of 2017, the New York Times reported a story on Harvey’s sexual assaults

throughout the years. They also revealed how he paid off his victims. Since October, the

“#MeToo” movement began and women around the Hollywood social sphere flocked together in

support of each other. Eighty-four women, and counting, have spoken out about their sexual

assaults, rapes, and inappropriate touches and comments made by Weinstein. Many of the

Hollywood elite women who have come out and told their story include Ashley Judd, Rose

McGowan, Angelina Jolie, and Gwyneth Paltrow, just to name a few.

Many women in America have and will experience sexual assault. According to Rape,

Abuse, & Incest National Network, RAINN, college women who are within the ages of 18-24

have three times the risk of being sexually assaulted. This is a significant step for women across

the United States for encouragement in speaking up about their abuse.

Harvey Weinstein is the perfect person to use for this paper because of his heinous

actions. These make it easier to point out his flaws and provide better use for determining each

perspective of personality.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

The psychoanalytic perspective can be attributed best with Sigmund Freud. Freud

believed unconscious influences, sexual drives, defense mechanisms, and the id, ego, and
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superego, had extreme influence in behavior and personality. In regards to Harvey Weinstein, a

few explanations to his sexual assault allegations can be examined with a psychoanalytic lens.

First, the id, ego, and superego can help analyze Weinstein. The id is the pleasure part of

our mind with primitive drives and emotions, the ego being our reality with the balance of our id

and superego, and our superego involves our morality and internalized social norms. For Harvey,

one can say his id overpowered him. He was so set on seeking pleasure that he sexually assaulted

dozens of women, something that is not socially accepted in our society. His primitive emotions

completely disregarded the ego and superego.

Next, Freud supposed defense mechanisms to be a way to protect the ego from the id by

distorting reality (Friedman & Schustack, 1999). The defense mechanism best for describing

Weinstein’s personality is sublimation. Sublimation occurs when dangerous urges and impulses

are transformed into positive outcomes, such as creative projects and socially acceptable

behaviors. For Weinstein, his need for control over others, especially women, became so strong

and passionate, therefore indicating why he chose the powerful position of a Hollywood

producer. He created well known and successful movies, making those around him admire him.

Finally, according to Freud, the psychosexual stages can have a big impact on

personality. With this theory in mind it can be said that Weinstein is fixated in the phallic stage.

This stage’s theme is the pleasure with genitals, the conflict is overt sexual behavior that is

socially unacceptable, and the fixation is narcissism and inability to love. These characteristics

go well with Weinstein according to his personal life. Harvey has an overt sexual appetite with

his genitals when he assaults and rapes women and has been divorced twice, which can lead one

to think correctly of the “inability to love” hypothesis created from this stage.
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Neuroanalytic Perspective

The neuroanalytic perspective’s best-known founders are Jung, Adler, Horney, and

Erikson. This perspective is focused on the self and the drives and emotions from within. A few

ideas to consider include the ego, personal and collective unconscious, complexes, and Carl

Jung’s archetypes.

To begin, Harvey’s complex can have something to reveal. A complex, according to Jung

and the authors of our textbook, Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research, is “a group

of emotionally charged feelings, thoughts, and ideas…related to a particular theme” (Friedman &

Schustack, 1999). For Weinstein, the superiority complex can best describe his actions and self.

A superiority complex occurs when someone has an inferiority complex but needs to hide or feel

like they are overcoming it. Harvey’s inferiority complex can come from stress involving his job

or his marriages. The superiority complex is to mask the inferior side and look confident and feel

superior. This can enable him to feel as though he is invincible and start and also continue abuse

women. Especially if the women he abuses stay silent.

To finish, in the case of Weinstein, one of Carl Jung’s archetypes can perfectly describe

his situation. The persona and shadow archetype, which lie in the collective unconscious, is the

idea that on the outside, persona, the person is socially acceptable and viewed with respect, while

on the inside, shadow, they are dark and have unacceptable desires (Friedman & Schustack,

1999). Harvey Weinstein played the part of being a loving father of five, creator of well done

films, and being a activist for issues like gun control, AIDS, health care, and many more.

However, now we know that his shadow reveals a twisted man with sick motives.
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Biological Perspective

Pavlov, Plomin, Eysenck, Scarr, and Daly have been the most influential towards the

biological perspective of personality. The biological aspect of personality focuses on genes,

instincts, evolution, neurotransmitters, and inheritance. Some theories like behavioral genomics,

extraversion, and the behavioral approach system in this perspective can relate to Weinstein.

In the case of Harvey, behavioral genomics could be an explanation for his actions.

Behavioral genomics is the study of how genes affect behavior. Harvey’s genes, with the help of

natural selection, could be an answer for his aggression.

Another concept is extraversion. Harvey is extraverted. He is a producer and is constantly

in the limelight with tons of friends and colleagues. Extraverts have low levels of brain arousal,

making them likely to seek out stimulation elsewhere. He gets his stimulation through his work,

but when that isn’t enough, he involves himself in “sensation seeking” behavior. This behavior

can be anything out of the ordinary like trying a new roller coaster, however, Harvey took this

farther than expected and got his sensations from sexually abusing many women.

The last idea from this chapter is the behavioral approach system from Jeffrey Gray. The

behavioral approach system (BAS) regulates out responses to rewards. His BAS could be

overactive, leading him to be impulsive. These impulsive behaviors include his allegations.

Behaviorist Perspective

John B. Watson founded behaviorism. The behaviorist perspective takes into

consideration that behaviors are caused by the environment and stimuli outside of the individual.

Key ideas include classical conditioning, discrimination, operant conditioning, and reinforcement

and punishment.
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To start, classical conditioning methods can be used for identifying Weinstein’s

personality. Four factors of classical conditioning include the unconditioned stimulus,

conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and the conditioned response. For Harvey, we can

identify the unconditioned stimulus, as perhaps a previous promiscuous behavior by an attractive

woman he did or did not know and the unconditioned response is an increased sexual drive. With

this, comes the conditioned stimulus, which could be an attractive woman and the conditioned

response is an increased sexual drive.

Now, discrimination is learning to tell the difference between different stimuli. This

relates to Weinstein because he has to be able to control and identify his actions based on

differentiating stimuli. He needs to learn when and who to act on from discrimination.

Finally, there is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning involves two parts,

reinforcement and punishment. Both of these each have negative and positive components. For

Weinstein, these factors could be determined to play a role in his behaviors:

1) Positive reinforcement – Harvey sexually assaults someone and he gets a high five from a

friend for doing this act.

2) Negative reinforcement – Harvey’s victims want to tell others of their assault, Harvey

gives them money to keep them silent, and they don’t end up saying anything after that.

3) Positive punishment: Harvey is accused of assaulting dozens of women and then he is

fired form his production company and his wife divorces him.

4) Negative punishment: Weinstein is harassing a woman so she leaves the situation.

Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive perspective can be credited Kelly, Gestalt, and Bandura. The cognitive

perspective emphasizes perception, thinking, and feeling based on our environment. We are all
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different because of our different “lenses” by which we see the world. In chapter seven, many

factors we can tie to Weinstein’s personality include observational learning, field theory, and the

personal construct theory.

To begin, observational learning is when an action or behavior is performed and the

individual observing learns this behavior. Harvey could have seen aggressive behaviors as a

child and replicated them on others.

Next, field theory is a huge component to this chapter. This theory determines personality

into two categories: field dependence or field independence. Harvey Weinstein can be placed

into the category of being field dependent. Field dependent individuals are said to look at things

and solve problems as a whole, recognize faces, and prefer humanitarian occupations. Harvey

Weinstein perfectly embodies field dependence, as he is in a very social occupation and you

could say his line of work requires “looking at things as a whole” as important.

Last, the personal construct theory is how people understand the world based on personal

experiences and observations. These realities impact the way we view theories about human

behavior. With Weinstein, perhaps he had a terrible experience with a woman in his early years,

therefore creating a negative connotation with other women his is in contact with, also creating

anger and leading him to abuse. He clearly sees women as objects and why he does can be

explained by this theory.

Trait and Skill Perspective

The trait and skill approach is when individual’s personalities are based on numerous

adjectives. Contributors to this idea include Jung, Allport, Cattell, and Eysenck. We can describe

Harvey Weinstein’s personality by tests like the Big Five, the MBTI, and the early Hippocrates’

bodily humors.
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First, Hippocrates’ bodily humors presented itself to give personality descriptors based on

the various excess bodily fluids one could produce. These included blood, black bile, yellow bile,

and phlegm. For Weinstein, it can be said he is choleric, which is an excess of yellow bile,

because he is extroverted, goal oriented, ambitious, and a leader, based on his occupation. The

choleric humor also associates itself with anger-oriented individuals.

The MBTI is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator that places you into eight different

characteristics: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging

or perceiving. Overall, there are sixteen different personality types according to these

characteristics. I am an INTJ and Harvey Weinstein is an ESTP, also known as the “promoter”.

This means he is extraverted, sensing, thinking, and perceiving. Other ESTPs are Donald Trump

and Madonna. The “promoter” is described as outgoing and persuasive, and is sometimes called

a “con artist”. Harvey has many positive descriptions like being talented and persuasive,

however he is gross and probably persuasive in the negative context.

The last personality test is the Big 5 test. The Big 5 test puts people into traits like

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Harvey Weinstein is

relatively open and agreeable, and very extraverted, unconscientious (in that he is impulsive

considering his allegations), and neurotic.

Humanistic Perspective

This perspective “appreciates the spiritual nature of a person, emphasizes struggles for self-

fulfillment and dignity” and was impacted by Maslow, Rogers, Fromm. Ideas that we can draw

to Weinstein are self-actualization, alienation, and love.

According to humanists, love lets individuals overcome isolation and is an art. Weinstein

probably never had real love expect his children and perhaps his mother. With this perspective in
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mind, Harvey needs real love to help show him what it is and how to reflect that with others. His

lack of love is the reason for his offenses.

Self-actualization is when a person gains spirituality and is able to realize their potential.

These individuals possess qualities such as love, productiveness, and comfortability. One can say

Harvey is not self-actualized yet because of his disregard for others and lack of love. In order for

him to become self-actualized he needs to think of women as people, not objects, and find love,

whether that is romantically or not. Getting these issues sorted out can help him become spiritual

with himself and be in a state of fulfillment.

Person-Situation Interactionist Perspective

Murray, Sullivan, Mischel helped identify this theory of personality. The person-situation

interactionist perspective demonstrates that we are different selves in different situations. These

concepts include illusion of individuality and the circumplex model.

The illusion of individuality is the idea that we are not like anyone else, when in fact as the

book says, “…we may have as many personalities as we have interpersonal situations”. For

Harvey, with his colleagues in the movie industry, he may be professional and kind. However,

with his abuse victims, he is cold and callous, perhaps even charming. He and his family may

interact in a playful and friendly way, as well. His personality “changes” depending on whom he

is with.

The circumplex model is a bit like the illusion of individuality in that it is a model that

illustrates personality in interpersonal aspects. This circle demonstrates each “personality” you

take on depending what situation you are in. For example, Harvey, in one piece of the circle, is

mean and dominant, in another he is kind and friendly, in another, he is task-oriented and

serious, and so on. I believe this describes Harvey the best, because he was so well liked with
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certain individuals because that is who we was around them, yet with others he is seen and acts

in a completely different way.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a way to describe Harvey Weinstein in each of the eight perspectives

of personalities. Whether some make more sense than others, each sheds a light on how we can

identify and characterize individual’s personalities. Learning each perspective can impact the

way we view others in our ordinary lives.

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References

Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Rape and

Sexual Victimization Among College-Aged Females, 1995-2013 (2014).

Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (1999). Personality: classic theories and modern research.

Pearson.