IntroductionThe appropriate case in this analysis will be the early years of actress Emma Stone. Stone is a very famous actress and has numerous biographies describing her childhood life online. The details of his childhood will be discussed in more detail in the next section. The main sources used to gather these details about his life will be several biographies websites and popular blogging websites, such as Huffington Post. Stone provided multiple accounts of her life, which will also be used. This case will be analyzed through the lenses of Fonagy's Attachment Theory and Mentalization Theory. Throughout this work there will be a discussion of the general validity of these theories, as well as their relevance to Stone's life. While both theories help to better understand this actress's development during her early years, it will be shown that Fonagy's Mentalization Theory is ultimately a better lens to analyze Stone's personal development. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As mentioned, Emma Stone's early years will serve as inspiration for this analysis. Stone was born in 1988 in Arizona to Krista (Yeager), a homemaker, and Jeffrey Charles Stone, the founder and CEO of a contracting company (“Biography,” n.d.). As a child, she performed in many school productions, as well as other local productions in her hometown. In addition to working in various plays, she attended middle and high school as a regular student until the age of 15. She then decided to take her acting career more seriously. She created a PowerPoint presentation to convince her parents to allow her to drop out of school, move to Los Angeles, California, and fully pursue her acting career (“Biography,” n.d.). Her efforts proved successful, and Stone and her mother moved to California. Her mother homeschooled her while she auditioned for a large number of roles. She was rejected from all her auditions for the first few years until she was awarded the part of Laurie Partridge on the television show In Search of the Partridge Family. His bond with his mother will be discussed in more detail later in this article. Stone also recently opened up about the anxieties she struggled with as a child and during the time of her move. This anxiety was supposedly crippling and very demotivating when she was a child. It affected both his emotional and physical being. For example, she explains: “When I was seven years old, I was convinced that the house was on fire. I could just feel it. Not a hallucination, just a tightness in the chest, the feeling of not being able to breathe, as if the world was about to end” (Fuller, 2016, np). He had several other similar episodes and it was unclear whether it was some sort of mental anxiety disorder or the result of his life circumstances. Her parents intervened and enrolled Stone in therapy to treat her anxiety. Stone claimed that therapy had helped her dramatically. Furthermore, she explained that acting helped her distract herself from her feelings, (Fuller, 2016), so her participation in various productions, and therefore her big decision to fully pursue an acting career, helped her to recover. This particular aspect of his childhood is particularly pertinent in the discussion of Fonagy's Attachment Theory and Mentalization Theory, and will be explored in more depth in the following sections. In termsGenerally, Attachment Theory states that for an individual to successfully progress through personal development, they must have a strong emotional and physical attachment to at least one caregiver. There are different types of attachment styles one could adopt. An insecure attachment style instills anxiety in children and generally makes them often feel insecure and worried (Bowlby, 1988). Insecure attachment styles are typically induced by a lack of emotional attachment to at least one primary caregiver; however, the dynamics of the relationship between caregiver and child can also create an insecure attachment style. A secure attachment style allows children to experience smooth personal development and occurs when the child can connect emotionally and physically with at least one caregiver. In this particular case, Stone oscillates between insecure and secure attachment styles. Stone has openly admitted that he battled anxiety for much of his childhood, which is very indicative of an insecure attachment style. The actress said that as a child her anxiety was constant. He constantly asked his mother how exactly the day was going to turn out and often felt nauseous due to his worries (Holmes, 2016). That said, Stone had a seemingly very positive relationship with her mother. He has a relatively neutral relationship with his father; she didn't have a very deep connection with him, but there were no significant underlying issues. His mother was a homemaker and his father was the founder and CEO of a general contracting company (Diehl, Wolfe & Demarchelier, 2015). Furthermore, his parents were very supportive of Stone's anxieties. They signed her up for therapy, and Stone reported that the assistance of a professional was exceptionally helpful. This act shows that Stone's parents certainly cared about her, but not necessarily that she was able to connect with them very deeply. On the other hand, children may be burdened by anxiety disorders independent of their home life, and struggle with such challenges despite having a very healthy home dynamic. That said, the nature of Stone's life most likely could have created feelings of loneliness, and caused her to become detached from her parents. Stone only attended high school for a year before dropping out. She convinced her parents to move to California to pursue her acting career. She and her mother moved shortly after she left high school. This feat demonstrates that her mother must have cared enough to pick up her life and move in with her daughter, but it still doesn't speak to Stone's perceived connection to her mother. Dropping out of school and moving to a new city to audition for big productions are not decisions most people make. It is very likely that Stone felt isolated because of her decisions, and as if she couldn't connect with her mother since her mother couldn't understand what she was going through. In addition to this, Stone appeared to have a very secure attachment style in his early life. adult life. One potential explanation for this is that she actually bonded deeply with her mother and was simply burdened with an unrelated anxiety disorder. Factors outside of a child's relationship with their primary caregivers can contribute to the anxiety they experience. This also makes sense, given that Stone felt anxious as early as age 7, which was before she radically changed her life. Simply put, he might otherwise have possessed a secure attachment style, and beneath his mental illness. Another explanation is that Stone was able to talk about her problemswell enough to not be significantly affected. This concept is known as the reflective function. According to John Bowlby, the ability to talk about and understand the instances that perpetuate an insecure attachment style mitigates the ongoing negative consequences of the respective trauma (Bowlby, 1988). In this particular case, Stone's trauma was leaving school, moving out of state, and deciding to carry out something seemingly foolish; although these decisions were voluntary. She was able to discuss her feelings with a therapist and use acting out as a tool to deal with her stress, so it is very likely that she eliminated many of the long-term worries associated with an insecure attachment style. Overall, one can see how Attachment Theory fits into the dynamics of Stone's early years and provides a deeper explanation for how he experienced personal development. Stone's early years can also be analyzed more deeply through the lens of Fonagy's theory of mentalization. In general, mentalizing denotes interest in one's mind (Fonagy, 2002). More specifically, mentalization theory suggests that in order for a person to develop, they must be aware of and interested in the workings of their own mind. Attachment theory and mentalizing are closely related; Fonagy argues that the lack of adequate attachment in childhood likely interferes with the ability to be aware of or develop interest in one's mental state (Fonagy, 2002). In general, the concept behind this argument is that if a child fails to adequately attach to a caregiver, his or her mind will be shaped in a way that forces him or her to preoccupy his or her thoughts with anxiety instead of possessing control. clarity necessary to reflect and understand the facets. of their mind. On the other hand, if a child successfully attaches to at least one of his primary caregivers, he will be better equipped to understand how his mind works and why he responds to stimuli in certain ways. Mentalization helps to understand Stone's early years, his anxiety disorders and his recoveries very well. One analysis of Stone's situation is that he properly attached himself to his mother or father, and therefore was able to understand his anxiety disorder well enough to improve it. . More specifically, she was provided with the tools of self-reflection and analysis because of the strong emotional bonds she formed with her parents. This conclusion is based on the assumption that she actually connected well with her parents, rather than never truly connecting, and that her anxiety disorder was an independent mental illness induced by external factors. His self-reflection was evident in many scenarios. For example, as previously discussed, she understood both as a child and as an adult that she had struggled with crippling anxieties as a child. This is a clear example of his ability to reflect and understand his mental condition. Additionally, he took therapy and acting incredibly seriously and actively attempted to reduce his anxiety. This shows his interest in his personal development and mental health. Additionally, Stone has publicly noted that she takes pride in her humor (Fisher, 2016). This also shows that he has at least a basic level of interest in his own mind. She understands her weaknesses and difficulties, but also the aspects of herself that she likes and believes are positive. It can be seen that if Stone indeed developed a strong emotional connection with one of her parents, this connection gave her the correct state of mind she needed to overcomehis disorder and continue to develop healthily. This analysis can be expanded to explain the specific characteristics of the attachment style that Stone embodied as a child and young adult. In other words, mentalization theory explains why Stone exhibited many insecure attachment styles as a child despite being supported by caring parents, and therefore also why she possesses a secure attachment style as an adult. Additionally, Stone's early development of a strong emotional bond with her parents gave her the tools she needed to be able to engage with her own mind, reflect, and deal with the situation. External and independent variables influenced her anxiety levels, causing her to develop a disorder and, therefore, to show insecure attachment characteristics. However, because she had developed the tools that came with her strong emotional connection, she was able to engage with herself, recover, and then return to a secure attachment style. Additionally, Stone has maintained very healthy relationships, both platonic and romantic, in her adult life. According to Lee A. Kirkpatrick, true attachment styles and those attachment styles developed very early in life are significant indicators of the dynamics of future relationships that will be entertained (Kirkpatrick & Hazan, 1994). In other words, if Stone truly possessed an insecure attachment style, it is very likely that her other relationships would struggle due to her inability to feel secure and cope. However, she has had many successful relationships and prides herself on her extreme confidence ("Stone Talks Confidence", 2014). This further confirms the validity of Fonagy's mentalization theory. Despite the crippling anxiety she experienced as a child and the natural difficulties that accompany being a celebrity, Stone has the tools she needs to combat these struggles and gain self-confidence through her early development of an attachment style Safe. This theory can be seen to provide much deeper insights into the circumstances of Stone's early years. Final Assessment Overall, both theories discussed provide deeper and more diverse insights into Emma Stone's early life. This particular case is very interesting because the individual has both insecure and secure attachment styles, and the nature of his life is very different from that of most lay people; she is very famous and dropped out of school at an early age. Furthermore, both Attachment Theory and Fonagy's Mentalization Theory provide postulations as to why Stone dealt with anxiety, despite having seemingly positive relationships with her parents. However, Fonagy's theory ultimately provides stronger insights in this case, and is more robust overall. Attachment theory is silent about cases in which individuals have developed very healthy and secure attachments with at least one of their primary caregivers, but still possess an insecure attachment. styles. It does not consider other external variables, such as life trauma, bullying, abuse by a separate individual, or drastic life changes in forming an attachment style. For this particular case, it is clear that attachment theory does not apply very well to Stone's early years, as he possessed many characteristics of an insecure attachment style, but appeared to have very supportive parents, including a mother who was willing to let him study Stone home and move home. California with her. It's possible that Stone didn't bond very well emotionally with either of her parents, which would make this theory a more solid analysis, but given the steps her mother went to to support her, that's enough.