Power Animal

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See also: Animal worship

A catch-all for New Age spiritualism used as psychology. The actual technique may be fictitious, but has been mentioned in the movies Fight Club and Thumbsucker. According either movie the process involves the exercise of visualizing animals as a source of strength. The person needing therapy usually try to seek out specific animal which best characterizes them, and draw on its power. Supposedly, this power is for healing ailments, but more commonly for breaking addiction.

[edit] Context in Media

• In the movie Thumbsucker, the protagonist's dentist, Keanu Reeves mentions the concept (Keanu's chosen animal is the wolf). He offers it as a way to break the addiction of thumbsucking, but later decides the Power Animal idea is nonsense and instead encourages him to accept the habit as normal.
• In the movie Fight Club, the main character has insomnia, and treats it by attending support groups for other ailments, becoming a support group addict. In one of the groups, he is told to find his animal, and he chooses a penguin.