Jack, a Psychodynamic Approach

Jack a Psychodynamic approach

Identity

Loss of contact with the Italian community when leaving Swindon may have caused Jack to feel detached with his heritage and uncertain of his place in the world. Sexual abuse at age 14 when masculinity and sexuality are being developed may have caused Jack difficulty in developing a strong sense of self.

Fantasies about self

Jack’s fantasies of his entitlement to a large sum of money may possibly come from his belief he was entitled to his father’s empire which he was supposed to inherit.

Self-esteem vulnerability

Jack may be envious of his sister’s current situation so projects his own experience of sexual abuse on to her to protect his own self-esteem.

Internal response to self-esteem threats

Jack seems to be experiencing grandiosity in that he is exerting overconfidence in the beliefs of who he is (a famous song writer) and what he is owed (royalties from Robbie Williams), this may be an unconscious protection of his self-esteem.

Trust

When Jack was 10 his father was an alcoholic and violent towards his family. At age 14 Jack was sexually abused by the male boss and at age 15 Jack’s father left the family and no contact has been made since. Once Jack continued to go off the rails, his mother threw him out of the family home. It seems understandable that Jack will now have difficulty trusting anyone, with broken care-giver relationships and abuse from a figure in authority Jack does not trust that anyone cares about him and is now experiencing delusions that his friends want to kill him. It could be hypothesised that Jack has disorganised attachment with his confused feelings for his father, this hypothesis may help to form a care plan for treatment (Bowlby & Ainsworth, 2013).

Defence Mechanisms include:

Jack has disassociated by using increasingly regressive defence strategies. By disconnecting unacceptable thoughts and feelings from current reality. Projective identification, projecting rape on to his sister. Denial, acting out with drug and alcohol abuse and finally resorting to manic and paranoid psychotic delusions.

The evidence suggests Jack has considerable weakness in his sense of self with difficulty sustaining a sense of reality and utilising severely regressive and psychotic defence strategies to deal with life pressures.

(Note: Sub-headings would not be used in the actual assignment)

Cabaniss, D. L. (Ed.). (2013). Psychodynamic formulation. John Wiley & Sons.

Bowlby, J., & Ainsworth, M. (2013). The origins of attachment theory. Attachment Theory: Social, Developmental, and Clinical Perspectives, 45.