case of patient “H”, studied by Sunny Stras, family therapy seemed to be the best way to treat narcissistic personality disorder in formerly abused children. Patient H is a “second generation Iranian” who is extroverted yet appears “out of place”; he tells stories of how he “held a gun to his father’s head” and “pushed his ex-wife out of a moving car” (Stras). As an Iranian, presence is very important as one mistake brings shame upon the whole family, so the pressure is already heavy on patient H’s family. During his therapy sessions with his family, it is clear that he was abused by his father as he continued to live in a “strict, tight notch Iranian household” (Stras). His mother seemed to be holding a “facade of perfection” as the stories of familial troubles and abuse were revealed. Family therapy is a way of comforting the narcissistic damage of trauma and abandonment; the daily reality of “tumultuous rage” caused by the patient’s father’s rage and high expectations pushed him to the edge (Stras). During family therapy, the family is taught to communicate with each other empathic words in order to move towards self-actualization for not only patient H but his family as well. The fragile state that patient H is in takes effort, meditation, self-reflection, and removing the “defensive, self-absorbed” state from the mind. Family therapy has helped patient H over several sessions kick his opiate addiction and soothe anger towards his family and others surrounding him thus making it easier to sustain relationships (Stras). The high-maintenance and vie for perfection from family is extremely similar to the cases of the children of stage parents who psychologically damage their children’s minds.
Some researchers believe that...
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...ing or the neglectful parenting style that lacks communication in general (Kets de Vries). The parenting styles that ignite consistent praise of a child do not create as many issues for the child as it does for the parent (Kets de Vries). One of the main causes of NPD is the neglectful or abusive childhoods that often lack communication; this lack of communication involves either one or both of the sides not being able to communicate (Ronningstam). The way the interpersonal relationships are formed for the egotistical child who spends their childhood getting what they want and being told they are extraordinary is not a feasible reason that leads to instability of relationships, fluctuation of esteem, shame of oneself, and need for admiration; the “perfect child” would most likely exhibit some of the main defining characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder.
Experiential Family Therapy is a therapy that encourages patients to address subconscious issues through actions, and role playing. It is a treatment that is used for a group of people in order to determine the source of problem in the family (Gurman and Kniskern, 2014). Experiential Family Therapy has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths of this therapy is that, it focuses on the present and patients are able to express their emotions on what is happening to them presently. The client will have time to share everything about his/her life experiences one on one without any fears. As a result, it helps the client in the healing process because, he/she is able to express their feelings freely and come out of the problem. Therefore, in this type of therapy, the clients are deeply involved in solving their issues. It helps clients to scrutinize their individual connections and to initiate a self-discovery through therapy, on how their relationships influence their current behaviors (Gurman and Kniskern, 2014). By examining their personal relationships through experiential family therapy, family members are able to
The Bowen approach to therapy is very different to that of other family therapies. It is centralized around the importance of family emotional systems and the history of the system, which can be traced through the family dynamics of the parents and grandparent’s families (Sharf, 2012). One of the main aims of Bowen therapy is to reduce anxiety or stress by minimizing conflict, which can be a result of conflicting relations within the family system (Ticho, 1972, Rivett and Street 2009). This essay is going to examine how Bowen hopes to achieve these goals through a critical examination of his account of change during the process of therapy. This will be done through an examination of the role of the therapist in the change, Bowen’s wider concepts and within these the operationalization of specific techniques. It will also examine Bowen’s attention to culture, suggesting that within the emotional system the role of culture is given less significance (Friedman 1991). The essay will then illustrate the effectiveness of the Bowen approach in producing change in a client; this will be done through a literary review of the research.
The aim of the psychoanalytic therapy is to resolve interpersonal conflicts, toward the end of reconstructing one’s basic personality. (Corey 2013). Gathering life-history data, dream analysis, free association, interpretation and analysis of resistance and transference. Such procedures are aimed at increasing awareness, gaining intellectual and emotional insight. This begins a working-through process that leads to the reorganization of the client personality. According to Freud, out most intense experience of anxiety occurs at birth, when we are speratated from our mothers. Using this model will allow to examine the aniety as the basis of all the clients feelings of anxiety. Seperation from his mother at the age of 6 may have had an impact. Finally, this model tend that if noramal, rational approaches of the ego to reduce anxiety are not effective, the ego revert to ego-defense mechanisms. Jackson’s was defensive when discussion of possible sexual abuse was introduced in the sessions. This was pointed out as the Defense Mechansims, Repression. Therapist find this useful to bring the past experiences to the present, so that the client can begin to be aware.
416). It is easy to see how a person suffering from these biological abnormalities would exhibit the symptoms of BPD. The psychodynamic approach to understanding BPD cites need that are not met in childhood. In this theory, the caregiver is inconsistent. This inconsistency results in the child not being able to feel secure in the relationship (Boag, 2014). Children who are unable to develop secure relationships are taught that they cannot rely on people, and are therefore insecure in their interpersonal relationships. Cognitive theorists see personality disorders as developing from adaptive behaviors that they have formed that are considered over or underdeveloped in general society (Sampson, McCubbin, and Tyrer, 2006). In this theory people with BPD develop adaptive behaviors, often to inconsistent behaviors of parents (Reinecke & Ehrenreich, 2005). These adaptive behaviors are considered maladaptive, because they work to counteract the inconsistent behaviors of the caregiver, but do not work when the person tries to use them in their everyday life. In the humanistic model, psychologists maintain that people have an ingrained desire to self-actualize (Comer, 2014, p. 53). Children who are not shown unconditional love, develop “conditions of worth” (Comer, 2014, p. 53). These children do not develop accurate senses of themselves; therefore, they are unable to establish identities. Due to their lack of personal identity, they learn to base their self-worth on others. In socio-cultural theorists argue that BPD is due to a rapidly changing culture (Comer, 2014, p. 418). The change in culture leads to a loss of support systems. These support systems help to counteract many of the symptoms of BPD: little or no sense of self, anxiety, and emptiness. Many of these theories relate back to the experiences of people in their childhood. Children develop based on the treatment and security they receive from their caregivers. When there is inconsistent reliability, children
Precious needs long-term individual counseling and psychotherapy with the main goal of helping her develop true self and whole self. Precious’ mother did not provide a healthy relationship, therefore she relied on her father to provide her sense of self. As a result, she is searching for her sense of self in her relationships with men. In addition, she idealizes men because her father was more consistent than her mother, and it was him who, paradoxically, gave her the best thing in her life – her son Abdul.
Murray Bowen, a pioneer of psychiatry in the 1950s proposed a family system theory where each family member’s behaviour is explained by eight interlocking concepts. The first concept is triangle. It is a three person relationship system and is considered as the basic building block of larger emotional unit. A triangle can contain more tension than a dyad (two person system) due to the shifting of tension among the three person involved. The next one is differentiation of self. It is stated that families affects strongly how a person thinks. Depends on how a family functions, the children will either have a well-defined or a poorly-defined “self” depending on their emotional dependence on other people. There is also the nuclear family emotional system. The concept describes 4 basic relationships that govern where problems develop in a family; marital conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of one or more children and emotional distance. The fourth concept is family projection process which describes the way parents transmit their emotional problem to their child. The primary c...
Looking at recent publications, one has the impression that family therapy is a new concoction from the psychotherapist's alchemic kitchen. It is met with diverse reactions. Some regard it suspiciously, seeing it as a deviation from traditional therapeutic methods; others praise it as an important advance in the treatment of psychoses. Still others view it as a special method for dealing with children.
In addition to the title of the articles, “A Qualitative Study of Intensive Filial Intervention Using Child-Parent Relationship Therapy” (Socarras, Smith-Adcock, & Shin, 2015) and “Quantitative Analysis of Long-Term
The precious family dynamic is complex and has many generational components, of neglect and abuse to further understand the family’s behavior and outcomes, Alfred Adler’s psychoanalytic theory derived from Freud’s theories; Looks at human relationships and motivation. “Children look at family relationships for feelings of significance belonging and competence” Rogers, A. (2017, pg.504) Precious has spent many years being subjected to verbal and emotional abuse, she stated her mother has called and referred to her as stupid and dumb, told her on numerous occasions that “she will never be anything.”
Chapter-8, talks about psychodynamics and how it relates to psychoanalytic theory when working with family, these concepts are known to provide the families with the best theories techniques on family growth and trouble formation. Concurring with the psychoanalytic theory tells us that behavioral symptoms are the mechanism to cope with unconscious issues. On this chapter Nichols (2017) defined “projective identification as the process whereby a subject perceives an object as if
The following essay explains the viewpoint of both psychoanalytic and cognitive therapy. It goes in depth about their beliefs and forms of therapy. The essay discusses how to deal with patients who deal with narcissistic personality disorder. The end of the essay relates these theories to Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It focuses on the main character’s narcissism and the bases of it.
The client stated that she came to therapy because she has been feeling really lonely and feeling as though that she is not enough since the death of her father. After the death of her father, her mother did not pay her any attention; she understood that her mother was grieving, especially when her grandfather passed a year later. I stated that the frequent death that surrounded her mother, seem to have caused her mother to distance herself from her. She responded “yes, and it even gotten worse when my mom started to date and eventually marry my stepfather”. She mentioned that once her little sister was born, she became jealous and envious. I emphasized with her by stating that she must have felt as though her little sister was going to take the attention that she sought from her mother. After confirming that her mother paid more attention to her sister and stepfather, she mentioned that during this time she began to cut herself in places that no one would notice. The pain did not take the feeling away, but she wanted to know that if she could still feel pain after the thought of losing everything. However, the only person who paid her any attention during this time, was her grandmother. Her grandmother showed her the love that her mother nor “father figure” never showed her. I stated, “the love that your grandmother showed was not the love you were
As a social worker it is often complex to determine which theory to employ in practice, each client will warrant for an in-debt assessment of the presenting problem and goals the client desires to achieve. This paper will explore one family intervention model that can be applied to the Taylor family. The two theories analyzed are Cognitive Behavioral Family Theory, (CBFT) and Structural Family Theory (SFT); both theories can be utilized when assisting individuals or families. The social worker will focus on the Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy model when applying treatment and interventions to the Taylor family case.
Abuse, among other calamities of life, can leave a person feeling unable to clamber out of their deepest trenches, let alone fill them. For more dark days than I care to mention, I dwelled inside a cycle of abuse with a mother consisting of one part alcoholism, two parts narcissism, and three parts insanity; and I remember how utterly small I
Erikson believes that during this stage, children will seek approval from others by displaying skills that are valued by others. Additionally, he believes that if this initiative continues, the child will develop confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. During the first few stages of both theories, we see challenges in the development of the child and we also see challenges that a child might face during some, if not all, forms of attachment theory. For example, a parent ignoring the child and speaking to them in a negative manner during insecure-avoidant attachment can be challenging for a child and lead to insecurities and the feeling of not being loved and/or wanted.