My Sisters Keeper is a movie about an eleven year old girl, Anna, who sues her parents for the rights to her own body. Anna was genetically conceived by her parents to be a perfect donor match for her sister, Kate, who was dying of Leukemia. Anna’s parents had been taking transplants from her since she was a newborn including cord blood, bone marrow, white blood cells and many other painful and dangerous procedures. However the catalyst was when her mother wanted Anna to give Kate one of her Kidneys.
Although at first it seemed as though it was all Anna’s idea it turns out that Kate had actually told her to do so because her mother was refusing to let her go, and she wanted to die because she was tired and very sick. This was actually a book written by Jodi Picoult and the ending in her book is that Anna wins the case but soon after dies in a tragic car accident and so Kate ends up getting her kidney and ironically living anyway. In the movie, Anna wins the case and Kate dies.
Although this movie has many psychological elements I want to focus on the mothers Defense Mechanisms in this whole story. Throughout the case, and Anna’s entire life her mother had been in denial that Kate was dying and that eventually it was going to happen. Because of this acute denial, Anna repressed all signs that she was injuring her marriage, neglecting her other children, giving up on her own life/hopes/dreams, and not listening to Kate’s plea to rest peacefully. Things ended up resolved in the end, but there was a lot of damage to the entire family. This was an excellent example of how we often use denial and/or other defense mechanisms to push away undesired realities or deal with grief.
It may not be possible to stop such an emotional reaction (I even got teary-eyed during the movie!) but knowing this may allow us to try and prevent damage from defense mechanisms. Defense Mechanisms were discussed in chapter 11 of our psychology text on page 422 (4th edition)
Although at first it seemed as though it was all Anna’s idea it turns out that Kate had actually told her to do so because her mother was refusing to let her go, and she wanted to die because she was tired and very sick. This was actually a book written by Jodi Picoult and the ending in her book is that Anna wins the case but soon after dies in a tragic car accident and so Kate ends up getting her kidney and ironically living anyway. In the movie, Anna wins the case and Kate dies.
Although this movie has many psychological elements I want to focus on the mothers Defense Mechanisms in this whole story. Throughout the case, and Anna’s entire life her mother had been in denial that Kate was dying and that eventually it was going to happen. Because of this acute denial, Anna repressed all signs that she was injuring her marriage, neglecting her other children, giving up on her own life/hopes/dreams, and not listening to Kate’s plea to rest peacefully. Things ended up resolved in the end, but there was a lot of damage to the entire family. This was an excellent example of how we often use denial and/or other defense mechanisms to push away undesired realities or deal with grief.
It may not be possible to stop such an emotional reaction (I even got teary-eyed during the movie!) but knowing this may allow us to try and prevent damage from defense mechanisms. Defense Mechanisms were discussed in chapter 11 of our psychology text on page 422 (4th edition)
I actually want to read the book becuase this is touching. I heard of this situation and I am sure it was hard for the mother and the daughter. No mother wants to see their child dying or wants to bury their child but at the same time she has to respect both daughters bodies. The daughter who had to give all of these things for her sister is a trooper. Im glad she went to the court because if her sister needed a heart transplant her mom would have made her give that up too. She didnt think about the daughter at all.
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