Seth+Cohen

= Seth Cohen =

Biography
Seth Ezekiel Cohen, played by Adam Brody, is a fictional character from the television program "The O.C." which aired on Fox from 2003-2007. Seth is a main character who was featured in all 96 episodes, of the popular teen drama. Seth was born in Berkeley California and raised in Newport California, which is part of Orange County or, "The O.C.. Seth is the son of Sanford "Sandy" Cohen and Kirsten Cohen. Seth's best friend is his adopted brother, Ryan Atwood, who was also Seth's best man at his wedding. Ryan is taken in by the Cohens in the premiere episode of The O.C.. Sandy Cohen is a public defender who brings Ryan home after his mother kicks him out of his house for being arrested as an accessory to car theft, when his older brother, Trey, tries to steal a car. At first Ryan's staying with the Cohens is supposed to be temporary, and he is confined to the pool house so as to not be a negative influence on Seth. Ryan's mother does come back to get Ryan a few episodes later but instead decides to leave him with the wealthy family. Ryan becomes a cherished family member and if officially adopted. Ryan returns to his home town, Chino, when he finds out his ex-girlfriend is pregnant. The baby is not his, and he returns to the Cohens' home at the beginning of season two. When Ryan leaves for Chino, Seth can not bear to continue to live in Newport without him so he sails away to Portland, Oregon. Seth returns to his home at the same time Ryan does, in the beginning of season two. Seth is married to Summer Roberts whom he began a relationship with in 2003. Seth and Summer's relationship is on again off again for a while. It begins as a love triangle when Seth started his first girlfriend Anna Stern. Summer finally begins to have feelings for Seth and Seth can not deny his feelings for Summer. When Summer returns to Newport, after his summer in Portland he finds that Summer is now dating water polo player, Zach Stevens. Seth begins dating Alex Kelly, his manager at //the bait shop//, a local music club. Seth and Summer do eventually get back together but break up a few more times before getting married. Seth is also the brother of Sophie Cohen. Seth's interests include graphic novels, movies, and the music group //Death Cab for Cutie//. Seth Graduates from Harbor High School in 2006 where he also founded the school's comic book club. Seth attends the Rhodes Island School of Design beginning in 2008. Seth is the artist of the graphic novel series "Atomic County". Seth's mother is Protestant and his father is Jewish. Seth identifies more with the Jewish religion and culture, but he infused his two sides to create the hybrid Holiday "Chrismukkah".

Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic Perspective
According to Sigmund Freud and his Psychoanalytic perspective, or "basic approach to understanding personality" we can assess a few thing about Seth. In the first episode of "The O.C." we learn that Seth is a loner and an only child who has no friends at school or interests that involve social interaction. Seth's only friend is a plastic horse from childhood named Captain Oats. He spends the majority of his free time reading graphic novels, playing video games, listening to music, watching movies and sailing by himself. Freud would probably say that Seth developed these interests during his Latency period, or "the period between five and eleven in which no important psychosexual developments take place and during which sexual urges are not directly expressed but instead are channeled into other activities". Seth also has built a boat which he named "Summer Breeze" and plans to take on a trip to Tahiti. "Summer Breeze" is named after Seth's future love, Summer, a girl Seth goes to school with. However Summer is unaware even of who Seth is because the two have never spoken. Even though Seth feels he is completely in love with Summer, he is terrified to talk to her. Freud would say that Seth has a phobia. Freud describes a phobia as "An excessive or incapacitating fear". He has a social phobia which is why he is condemned to a life of solitude, and an even bigger phobia when it comes to Summer. When Ryan, a troubled teen, comes to stay with the Cohens, he is invited to a party by Summer. He brings Seth to the party so he can overcome his fears. Seth shows a great amount of anxiety at the party attempting to socialize especially with Summer. Freud describes anxiety as "A state of intense apprehension or uncertainty, resulting from the anticipation of a threatening event or challenge, either external or internal; the ego's job is to protect against anxiety, but its failures lead to psychological problems". When Seth learns that Summer invited Ryan to the party because she is interested in him romantically, Seth is hurt. He can not take his pain out on Summer, who he was afraid to speak to, so instead he uses Displacement, "A defense mechanism in which the target of one's unconscious fears or desires is shifted away from the true cause," and publicly reveals Ryan's secret, that he is a criminal from Chino, to everyone at the party, causing them to immediately dislike Ryan. In the first season's finale, Seth has a small but tight group of friends including the girl next door, Marissa Cooper and his best friend and adopted brother, Ryan. Seth is also in a committed relationship with Summer. When Ryan chooses to leave Newport and return to Chino Seth does not handle the news well. Even though he is loosing Ryan only and would still have his relationships with Marissa and Summer, Seth can not handle loosing his best friend/ brother. At first Seth experiences what Freud calls Reaction Formation, or "A defense mechanism that pushes away threatening impulses by overemphasizing the opposite in one's thoughts and actions". Seth pretends not to care or be affected by the fact that Ryan is leaving, he refuses to show emotion when Ryan says goodbye, to even look at him or get out of his bed as Ryan speaks to him. But then Seth has what Freud called a Regression, "A defense mechanism in which one returns to earlier, safer stages of one's life in order to escape present threats". Seth decides to return to his life before Ryan and once again become a loner. To achieve this he leaves on "The Summer Breeze" and goes to Portland, Oregon to get away from his friends. He leaves his parents and Summer only a note to say that he is leaving.

Perspective 2: Trait Perspective
The trait perspective is the "Use of limited set of adjective dimensions to describe and scale individuals". We can use this perspective to think of Seth's "Big Five" personality characteristics. The "Big Five" is "The trait approach to personality that is supported by a great deal of research and suggests personality can be captured in five dimensions: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness". Extroversion is "The personality dimension that includes enthusiasm, dominance, and sociability; people low on this dimension are considered introverted". Seth is extremely introverted when the series begins. He is not at all sociable or dominant. Although new friends Ryan and Anna help Seth to break out of his shell, he does stay mostly introverted throughout the series, never collecting more then a handful of close friends. He does however break out enough to start a comic book club at school, but even this is a small club. He also shows lack of dominance in his relationships. All three girlfriends throughout the series seem to be the ones in control of the relationship. When there is a love triangle between Seth, Summer and Anna, he seems to let the girls take over and work it out even as they are fighting over him. When he begins his relationship with Anna, Summer is able to push her out of the picture by making herself a third wheel on all of their time spent together. Agreeableness is "The personality dimension that includes friendliness, cooperation, and warmth; people low in this dimension are cold, quarrelsome and unkind". Although Seth is not the most social person he is moderately friendly, cooperative and warm. He is definitely not cold, quarrelsome or unkind, especially since he does whatever he can to avoid a conflict. When the love triangle was still in play and he was not officially with either Summer or Anna he did not want to upset either girl. On Thanksgiving he had both girls over and kept Summer in the pool house and Anna in his bedroom, not letting either girl know the other was there. He also gave them each the exact same Chrismukkah present. Conscientiousness is "The personality dimension that includes dependability, cautiousness, organization, and responsibility; people low in this dimension are impulsive, careless, disorderly, and undependable". Seth is dependable, and extremely cautious. However he did show signs of low conscientiousness. He impulsively decided to lie to his parents and go to Tijuana, Mexico instead of his yearly trip to Comic-con in San Diego. He also shows a lack of responsibility when he gets a job in high school at a local music club "the bait shop". He ends up dating his manager, who later complains that he was the worst employee she ever had. Seth also displays low conscientiousness during a brief phase during his senior year of high school where he experiments with the illegal drug, marijuana. Seth is introduced to the drug by next door neighbor, Marissa's 15 year old sister, Kaitlyn. He chooses to blow his interview with Brown University, where he has always dreamed of attending to take the drug a second time. Since he missed his interview he did not get into Brown, but Summer did. Seth continues for months to lie and say his interview went well and he did get into Brown. When Summer finds out the truth the pair break up. However, Seth's reason for lying is somewhat noble. Summer had said that if she got into Brown and Seth did not then she would not go without him. She did end up going and he chose the Rhodes Island school of design so he could be close to her. When Seth tries Marijuana for a third time he accidentally burns his Father's office down as a result of negligence. Neuroticism is "The personality dimension that includes nervousness, tension, and anxiety; people low in this dimension are emotionally stable, calm and contented". Seth is high on neuroticism. He is frequently nervous and has many anxieties, especially social anxiety. Openness is "The personality dimension that includes imagination, wit, originality, and creativity; people low on this dimension are shallow, plain and simple". Seth is high on openness because he shows he has a good imagination, wit, originality and creativity all through the graphic novel he created "Atomic County". He takes things that have happened in his life and people he knows and turns them into heroes and villains in a fictitious world not unlike his own. For example he turns the water polo team who picks on him into "demon water polo players". He pokes fun at Marissa's drinking by making her a hero whose super power is a weapon based on a flask. He calls Ryan who has punched people to defend Seth into "The Iron Fists". Henry Murray described people in terms on Need, or "A readiness to respond in a certain way under given conditions". Seth shows that he does not have a high Need for Achievement, or "the need to succeed on tasks that are set out by society". Seth does not seems to be motivated to meets societies goals since he does not conform to social norms. He also fails to achieve his original college goals when he blows off his Brown interview, then spends a year working in a comic book store. He does not even end up choosing a school based on what he can achieve by going to that school, but rather he chooses a school that will allow him to live with Summer. Seth does not show a high Need for Affiliation, or "the need to draw bear to and win the affection of others", since he goes on for so long without any friends. He also does not show a strong need for power, or "the need to seek positions and offices in which one can exert control over other". Seth is bullied in school and when he attends his first party with Ryan he is further bullied by Ryan's nemesis, Luke Ward. Instead of defending himself Seth lets Ryan take over. Luke and Ryan end up in a fist fight, and despite an earlier problem Seth and Ryan are best friends and brothers from then on. Seth also shows how much he does not want control in his romantic relationships where he lets the girls take over during the love triangle. When Seth is attempting a relationship with Anna, and Summer purposely acts as their third wheel, it ultimately ends the relationship. Seth immediately asks Summer out, when Anna breaks it off. The one time when Seth does show a need for power is when he creates the comic book club at school and forces the members to help him stalk Summer while she goes out with Seth's nemesis and business partner, Zach.

Discussion
Freud did not ever say what would happen in a person spent too long in their Latency period, because he said that no conflicts came from this time. However I believe that Seth probably did spend too long in this period since he was not as social as is considered the norm. All of his friends were sexually active before he even started dating, and Seth is the character shown to have the most hobby-like interests rather then social ones like the other characters. Also when I rated Seth's conscientiousness by looking at how he acted while experimenting with drugs it was unfair to his character because it does not represent who he is but who he was in and altered state. Also he only tried the drug three times, so it was not an altered state that happened on a regular basis for him. Although it is easy to break down a person's personality when we look at specific instances it is important to remember the key point of Gestalt Psychology, that "the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts" We see here that some instances that we have looked at conflict with others in terms of describing Seth's personality. Although there are underlying characteristic to his personality which are always there it is important to note that how a person acts in one situation varies from how they act in another situation and although we can predict by certain characteristics how a person may act in a given situation we can not say that we know for sure due to an infinite amount of other variables which go into how a person act at any given time. See video: media type="youtube" key="OyCF7RuEK48" width="425" height="350"