Max was not a monster and just because he bit his mom, that doesn’t mean he is violent. Instead, he is a normal 9 year old boy who doesn’t yet know how to appropriately express his feelings, and anger is indeed the easiest to express. Unfortunately, though, children do not often know how to properly express such anger, so they “act out.” All he wanted was some attention from his mother and sister. He felt invisible, unloved, and so he acted out. I don’t think it’s fair to judge a 9 year old child’s emotivity on an adult scale. And, yes, I was a psych major. And, yes, this was JUST a movie.