Synopsis of the Movie
The movie features a twelve-year-old girl living in Los Angeles, California. The girl’s name is Astrid Magnussen while her mother is Ingrid Magnussen. The girl hails from a single family since her father has never shown up since her birth. The girl seems to have a trouble life since she rarely interacts with others in school.
Her mother is very irresponsible since she does nothing to ensure that Astrid enjoys life. In fact, the mother behaves as if she does not have a daughter at all. Ingrid dates a young man named Barry Kolker without taking precautionary measures. She later realizes that the man has been cheating on her with other young women.
Ingrid becomes so annoyed on realizing that Barry is cheating on her. She wakes up one day and decides to poison Barry using a mixture of DMSO, an arthritis drug, and Oleander sap. Barry succumbs to the illness and Ingrid is charged with murder. Astrid is sent to a foster home after her mother’s sentence.
Her new family is that of Starr, which comprises of a former stripper, Starr, and her boyfriend Ray. Astrid has an affair with Ray, something that angers Starr to an extent of shooting Astrid. Astrid moves to live with the Turlocks family, which is comprised of Ed and Marvel. Her experience with the second foster family is not good because she becomes a friend to Turlocks adversary, who is a prostitute by profession referred to as Olivia.
Olivia teaches her all good things in life, including drinking and obtaining money through the sale of her body. One day, Astrid performs oral sex in exchange of drugs in a car park. The Turlocks cannot endure Astrid’s behavior, something that forces them to expel her in the winter break.
Justification of the Axes
Major Depressive Disorder
In human life, there are moments that an individual feels confused and sad. This is a normal feeling, but its persistence is considered a sign of depression. Depression occurs when an individual loses something that he or she values so much in his or her life. Astrid suffers from depression because she lost the mother to the prisons.
At times, depression affects the normal life of an individual because he or she cannot execute his duties in a way that befits him or her. This may lead to a psychological disorder referred to as the major depressive disorder (MDD), also termed as clinical depression. The symptoms of depression vary from one individual to the other, depending on the coping ability of an individual.
However, the sense of hopelessness and sadness are some of the major symptoms of depression. Astrid shows this symptom because she does not see anything value able in life. The signs and symptoms of depression are divided into three major categories, including psychological, social, and physical.
Social signs and symptoms include underperformance at the place of work, poor performance academically, avoidance of friends and relatives, keeping off from leisure activities, and being the cause of family problems. For Astrid, depression has affected her performance academically. In other patients, the symptoms associated with psychosis are noticed, even though Astrid does not show this (Murrell, 2011).
Psychological symptoms and signs of depression affect almost all patients. Patients with depression disorder tend to suffer from persistent sadness and low mood. They will always feel that they are worthless because they could not do anything to prevent the occurrence of the saddening event. Astrid feels that she did nothing to prevent her mother from going to jail.
For women, they feel like crying for not doing anything. Even though an individual might not have been involved directly in the occurrence of a saddening event, he or she would always feel guilty. In this regard, some individuals might become wild to an extent of not tolerating the views and ideas of others.
At this moment, an individual cannot come up with a single decision to resolve the problem facing him but instead he or she will come up with a number of ideas. In this case, an individual becomes so doubtful to an extent of rejecting even an obvious fact. If depression persists, an individual starts talking of committing suicide (Pruitt, 2007).
Justification of Axis 2
Astrid would definitely suffer from dependent personality disorder, even though psychologists do not know the causes of the disorder. Dependent personality disorder is a mental problem that makes people to depend too much on other individuals. People suffering from dependent personality disorder cannot realize their emotional and physical needs without the assistance of other people.
The disorder usually starts at childhood and may persist to adulthood in case preventive and curative therapies are not taken in time. Astrid could be suffering from this disorder since she is unable to live her own life in many instances. When the mother dies, she accepts to live with the foster family severally instead of fighting for her own life.
She gives in to the demands of men and other individuals so easily. She even accepts to perform an oral sex in exchange of a cheap drug referred to as marijuana. This implies that she lacks the confidence to sustain her own life. There are various symptoms of the disease. One of them is that an individual cannot trust his or her own decision. This happens to Astrid quite often because she accepts what other people tell her so easily.
People suffering from this disorder may accept to be abused only for them to be accepted as members of a group. For Astrid, the Turlocks accused her severally for associating with Olivia yet she did not quit living with them. In fact, the Turlocks forced her out of their house. This implies that one of the symptoms of dependent personality disorder is the fear of loneliness.
It is claimed that people suffering from dependent personality disorder fear taking responsibility, something that affected the life of Astrid in many ways. In Germany, she refused to leave the man he was staying with for a simple reason yet she was needed in California to help her mother get out of jail.
Impacts of the Disorders
Major depressive disorder has a great impact on the life of Astrid and those close to her. First, it affects her socialization in society because she does not make decisions affecting her personally. Due to stress and depression, she falls in love with other people’s fiancés and husbands. Frustrations lead her to perform oral sex on boys in return for cheap.
This affects her because other members of society view her negatively. She is perceived as an ineffective individual who cannot make a decision to find a husband or a boyfriend. This affects her to an extent of denying her own mother and demanding some compensation for helping the mother emerge victorious in the case facing her in California.
She is so depressed to note that her father is unknown and her mother does not care about her at all. This affects her performance in school since she always separated herself from other students. She prefers associating herself with bad people such as Olivia yet she has a chance of associating with well-mannered individuals (Stern, Rosenbaum, Fava, Biederman, Rauch, 2008).
Family Therapy Theory
A theory by Carl Whitaker would be an ideal theory to resolve the issues affecting Astrid. This is because the theory focuses on offering solutions to the present problems. It does not trace the history of the problem. For Astrid, an instant solution that does not dwell on the past would be perfect, given the problems she has gone through in life.
The theory is referred to as experiential family therapy theory. The theorist advised that the therapist should give the client a number of options instead of narrowing him or her to specific solutions. In this regard, the therapist should encourage the client to explore various choices in order to realize his or her potential. For Astrid, she should be encouraged to develop a sense of belonging and autonomy.
Through this, she will be able to improve her interactions with other people around her. The theory further claims that the solution provided to the client should be genuine meaning that it should be based on the information provided. In this case, the solution to the problem affecting Astrid should be based on the information that she provides.
The therapist should therefore be firm, caring, and unpredictable in order to offer a relevant solution to the problem (Dorius, Bahr, Hoffmann, & Harmon, 2004). The therapist should not suggest a solution that might be challenging for the client.
Treatment Plan
The condition of Astrad would be approached using the interpersonal family therapy, which is based on four main pillars. They include cognitive-behavioral psychology, developmental psychopathology, objects relation theory, and the family systems theory. During the first phase, the therapist would seek to join the family members by demonstrating empathy for the family as well as the Astrad’s situation.
Kaslow and Racusin (1994) noted that the assessment of all the family members incorporates several elements: life events; psychological symptomatology; interpersonal, affective, and adaptive behavior and family domains. During the second phase of the therapy, the therapist addresses all the aspects of family functioning that were identified in the initial phase.
Treatment of dependant personality disorder would entail engaging the affected in talks. From the above treatment plans, the main goals would be as follows:
- To help Astrid make informed decisions in life
- To help Astrid recover from the depression in order to prevent relaspse
- To educate Astrid on the importance of maintaining strong family ties
Intervention strategy
The strategy would entail a number of processes, including:
- Identification of the main problem
- Providing the forum to discuss the problem
- Referring the client to the experts
- Individualized counseling
- Arriving at a solution through consensus
References
Dorius, C.J., Bahr, J.S., Hoffmann, J.P., & Harmon, E.L. (2004).Parenting Practices As Moderators of the Relationship between Peers and Adolescent Marijuana Use. Journal of Family and Marriage, 66(1), 163-178.
Murrell, R.A. (2011). State of Research & Literature Address: ACT with Children, Adolescents, and Parents. The International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 7(1), 15-22
Pruitt, I.T. (2007). Family Treatment Approaches for Depression in Adolescent Males. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 35, 69-81.
Stern, T., Rosenbaum, F., Fava, M., Biederman, J., Rauch, S. (2008). Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Mosby.