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The Coping Mechanisms of Miss Lisa Simpson

One reason why The Simpsons is so popular is because many people can relate to their characters - even if do happen to be yellow drawings. We can take a look at Lisa, the tough little cookie in the Simpson family, from a psychological perspective - the various ways they cope with the world around them.

Lisa Simpson

Intellectualization is a coping mechanism in which you avoid emotion by focusing on facts and logic. Lisa often delves into her studies in order to avoid being embarrassed by her family or to avoid being teased for her geekiness. Ned once referred to her as the girl who was an answer nobody asked a question to.

Sublimation is turning bad energy into good energy. Often times we have uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, and we need these unpleasant energies to go somewhere else. Lisa does this in a myriad of different ways. She's taken up hockey and is an excellent goalie (although you can still see her apparent rage!). She also uses her feelings of loneliness and isolation in the world by playing her jazz saxophone (remember Bleeding Gums Murphy?). Sublimation can be good for us because it channels energy into something that is more socially acceptable, or creatively rewarding.

Idealization. In one episode, Lisa Simpson and her fellow Mensa society members attempt to run a utopia-like Springfield. This doesn't happen of course, but it shows how much Lisa wants things to be perfect. She's always fallen for her "ideal" boy and refuses to settle for anything less - like nerdy Milhouse. Another classic example is Mr. Burns - they start a partnership for his nuclear plant to become more environmentally friendly, but she ends up realizing he does more harm than damage. She often plays up the good points of people, believing that they can be good or live up to her ideal, but often ignores their limitations and ends up disappointed.

Identification occurs when you copy others in order to take on their characteristics, for whatever reason. In one episode, Lisa starts acting like Bart and using his slang "Ay, caramba!" and "Don't have a cow, man!" in order to impress a group of cool teenagers. She so desperately wants them to like her, that she starts identifying herself with Bart so she can be popular like him.

Fantasy. You'd think that Lisa Simpson, being as intellectual as she is, would be pretty realistic about everything. But she's not. Just like all little kids (and us adults too) she enjoys escaping reality in order to find a whole new world of possibility. Lisa has an imaginary friend named Rachel Cohen. "I have a Jewish imaginary friend. Her name is Rachel Cohen and she just got into Brandeis."

Why would Lisa invent an imaginary friend? Perhaps for companionship or for play, but most of all maybe to create an ideal version of herself. Lisa wants to get into a good university and be successful in the future - and "Rachel" is a reflection of that.

Rationalization is find a reason to explain or justify our bad behaviour. When a person does something where their super-ego disapproves, their ego seeks to defend itself by giving reasons which make that action acceptable - so we don't feel too guilty about it.

One good example of this is when Lisa takes up smoking in order to be thin and dance ballet. All her other ballet dancers smoke in order to stay thin and be great ballet dancers. She justifies this as her reason to continue the bad habit. She also has a dream in which all her feminist heroes persuade her to smoke. You can watch the clip here.

That night as Lisa sleeps a smoky apparition appears telling her its time to smoke. Lisa says no, cigarettes are for losers.

Apparation: Losers? You mean losers like, Simone De Beauvoir, Margaret Mead, Queen Elizabeth the first, Lauren Bacall?
Lisa: My feminist heroes!
Lilian: Don't forget me, Lilian Hellmen, smoking gave me the energy I needed to write plays and invent mayonnaise. Bring out the Hellman's and bring out the best!

Her smoky feminist heroes chant for her to puff with them.

Her addiction to smoking is rationalized by the need to be skinny and perform well. In the end, though, Lisa decides to stop smoking - and stops dancing as well.

Acting-out means giving in - not coping and therefore giving in to the pressure to misbehave. We "act out" or misbehave. Lisa takes a career aptitude test (which we later find out was scored by a malfunctioning computer) which tells her that she is best suited to live as a housewife. Angry about the results, she rebels - she stops trying in school, she smokes in the girls' bathroom and talks back to her teachers and principal.

Lisa is called into Principal Skinner's office.
Skinner asks, "Lisa, what are you rebelling against?"
Lisa answers, "Whaddya got?"

This is a reference to the old Marlon Brando movie, The Wild Ones. The classic rebel acts out because they give into all the pressure put on them. This is probably a good reason why Bart acts out and gets into mischief as well!

We all go through different stages in our life where we need to do whatever we can to cope with the events occurring. These coping mechanisms explained above are just a few examples of how we do this. So the next time you find you or your friends in unusual behaviour, or if you're ever wondering why they are the way they are, just remember that they may be trying to deal with something going on in their lives.

Images/References: Nation Master, TV.com, Jezebel, TV Recap Matt, Wikipedia, Changing Minds