Randy Robinson Essay

Professional wrestler, Randy Robinson, also known as his performing alias, “the Ram,” is a degenerating middle aged Caucasian male. He is an absent father to an adult college bound lesbian daughter who resents her father for his abandonment, addictive personality, and alternative lifestyle. Although Randy Robinson is charismatic, gentlemanly and protective of his relationships; has a strong sense of humor and is determined; it is with great struggle, pain, and disappointment. Randy Robinson is a fighter both in the ring and out; but due to increasing physiological problems including loss of hearing and vision impairment, overexertion, and a heart attack, accompanied with psychological and behavioral problems, his life in an acumination of his

Upon actualization of reality and continuous failed attempts to form new life meaning with his daughter, his romantic relationship, and his job, Randy turned against himself; abusing drugs, alcohol, and sex; punishing himself and ultimately ending his own life (Trevithick, 2011). The defense and coping mechanisms used throughout the cycle of middle adulthood and the midlife crisis of Randy Robinson are exemplified by Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic theory and expelled upon by George Vaillant. Vailliant realized men during this era of development adapt coping mechanisms to accommodate transitions however, men such as Randy who experience midlife as painful and stagnant are not well adjusted, pine for younger adulthood eras, and are unable to successfully cycle through adult development (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2012; Malone, Cohen, Liu, Vaillant, & Waldinger,

In conjunction with Levinson’s stage theory and Freud’s psychoanalysis of consciousness, Yalom defines existential psychotherapy as cognitive, emotional, mental, and behavioral processes interacting with one another on different plains of consciousness and utilization of defense mechanisms to avoid painful transitions in middle age (Becker, 2006). Middle age males experiencing a crisis employ defense mechanisms to address major mid-life themes including meaning of existence, new found isolation, freedom and responsibility, and inevitable closeness to death (Becker, 2006). To address clinical concerns of depression, unhealthy defenses, and drug abuse, the counseling approach integrates an alliance with the client, reassessing life priorities, a needs assessment, as well as exploration and identification of defenses; conscious and subconscious. This collaboration between client and worker comes from a strengths perspective of psychodynamic psychotherapy, assisting the middle aged man to define his own needs, realistically strategizing goals focusing on identifying internal, external, and natural resources for goal obtainment (Early & GlenMaye, 2000). By assisting the middle aged man in empowering self, coping mechanisms begin to accommodate