Case Study
Ann Hobbes is a girl of 26 years old. She is an African American and lives in New York, USA. Now Ann works as a waitress in a restaurant. She wants to change her job, but she has not an appropriate education because she had problems while studying at school, and later she resisted to enter the college. Ann’s colleagues do not like to work with Ann because there are many conflicts with the clients and administration during those days when she works.
Ann was brought up in a poor family which lived in a small town in Texas. Ann never had real friends because the society of the town discriminated the commune of the African Americans in different ways, and those children who studied at school with Ann refused to communicate with the girl and even abused her physically. Thus, a young girl used to demonstrate the violent behavior toward the other children, and she also refused to obey the authority at school. Moreover, Ann’s parents did not pay much attention to the girl, and they were not interested in her problems in communication with the other children and adults. Later Ann’s parents refused to interact with Ann as a result of some misunderstanding with her mother. In that situation, Ann tried to commit a suicide at her parents’ eyes, and then she attempted to fire the parents’ house.
When Ann moved to New York she changed a lot of workplaces, but she could not build any positive relations with her colleagues and administration. She is inclined to lie to her supervisors and to clients. The changes in her mood can affect the girl’s challengeable behavior when she acts impulsively and can provoke the conflict, abuse the other people, and express the anger. Ann has no friends, and she never had any positive recommendations from the previous workplaces. Sometimes the girl refuses to go to work because of her emotional breakdowns and depressive state.
The Identification of the Personality Theory
It is possible to state that Ann’s problems in determining herself as a personality and in communication with the other people depend on the fact that the girl suffers from the borderline personality disorder. The borderline personality disorder is associated with psychodynamic theories developed by Freud, Horney, and Kernberg. Thus, it is possible to discuss the borderline personality disorder in the context of Horney’s approach to the psychoanalysis with references to the role of parents and the other people in the personality’s development and to the phenomenon of neuroses (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Kernberg’s approach to the psychoanalysis is based on examining the differences between those personalities who can or cannot regulate their behavior according to the peculiarities of their neurotic types (Kernberg, 1996). Thus, individuals with the borderline personality disorder are characterized by the wide range of behaviors which differ from the high level of emotional impulsivity to the almost full emotional breakdown. That is why persons with the borderline personality disorder have difficulties in building the effective and stable interpersonal relations. Their emotions and behavior depend of the extreme shifts from depressions to the high level of anxiety. According to Kernberg, the individuals with the borderline personality disorder experience different difficulties in forming their self-image and always suffer from the feeling of emptiness (Kernberg, 1996). Thus, expressing impulsivity in actions and behavior, these persons try to avoid the reality, and they act according to the definite impulses which can be caused by various physiological, psychological and social factors.
The Peculiarities of the Interaction with Ann according to her Personal and Professional Life
Ann’s case is complicated by the fact she has never been treated as a person with the borderline personality disorder because her parents did not pay attention to the girl’s problems, and then they ceased any communication with Ann. Today, to provide the effective interaction with Ann, it is necessary to work out the plan of her treatment which should include the improvement of the aspects of her personal and professional life. It is important to establish the successful and trustful communication between Ann and the clinician in order to achieve the best results of the treatment.
Psychodynamic theories discuss such personality disorders as the borderline personality disorder as the problem which is affected by the physiological and psychological deficit in controlling the personality’s emotions and behavior (Feist & Feist, 2009). That is why it is important to concentrate on the issue of Ann’s regulating her behavior during her communication with the other people. From this point, the solution is in the prolonged and effective therapy because, according to the psychodynamic theories, the person with the personality disorder is inclined to act unconsciously (John, Robins, & Pervin, 2008). Moreover, Ann Hobbes made the attempts to commit the suicide that is why it is necessary to prevent such problems in the future and pay much attention to managing the girl’s self-harm behavior with accents on overcoming the depressed moods.
References
Feist, J. & Feist, G. J. (2009). Theories of personality. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
John, O. P., Robins, R. W., & Pervin, L. A. (2008). Handbook of personality: Theory and research. New York: Guilford Press.
Kernberg, O. (1996). A psychoanalytic theory of personality disorders. In J. Clarkin & M. Lenzenweger (Eds.), Major theories of personality disorder (pp 106-140). New York: Guilford.