With(in) Myself: Narcissistic Trajectories in the Animated Film “The Snowman” (1982)

ABSTRACT This essay follows the trajectory of the 1982 animated short film “The Snowman.” The film’s depiction of a relationship between a young child and an anthropomorphized snowman is used to explore a Freudian conception of the “normal” course of human sexual development. Specifically, the understanding of the snowman as a creative extension of the child is utilized to examine the shaping of narcissistic processes and negotiation of object choice, as well as the complex ways these can continue to interweave through psychical and external realities to shape the experiencing of love.