Lichtenberg included assertive exploring as one of five basic drives. The evolutionary advantages of exploring are substantial for a species evolving from hunter-gatherers. Truman s childhood attempts to explore are blocked at every turn, and are depicted by flashbacks in the movie. The staged death of his father in a boating accident, with Truman as a boy desperately trying to save him, results in a phobia of water, and this effectively jails him on the island. Truman s exploratory drive is physically thwarted, but psychologically he continues to explore and fantasize about traveling to Fiji where he imagines a long-lost love to be.
Children discover as part of separation-individuation, that they can have different thoughts.
Children eventually discover that all reality is not their parents reality. Healthy parents acknowledge different realities while still providing their own clear vision of values and rules. Children become clear about what their parents believe, yet also are implicitly or explicitly given the message that alternative realities can be valid. Tolerating multiple realities is the foundation for the individuation tasks of adolescence. As Erikson notes, the teen must consolidate an identity that is distinct from the one his parents would have for him.