Psychology: A Case Study Of Jerry's Psychodynamic Approach
a. Throughout the case description, Jerry listed multiple things he experiences fear or startle responses from. First, he stated that he does not share his war experiences with his family because he is afraid that they will leave him and think he is a monster, which may be associated to not sharing his thoughts and feelings with anyone else in his life. Second, Jerry sought psychotherapy because of anger dysregulation and insomnia, both of which may be secondary to his doctor’s recommendation that any undue stress could cause his condition to worsen. Therefore, I hypothesized that he is afraid of his health decreasing, which can be associated to a fear of losing his autonomy, feeling like he is worthless, and subsequently dying. Third,
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When looking at and configuring Jerry’s fear structure, I used a bottom-up approach to better understand his PTSD symptoms. Specifically, I began by writing down his fears (i.e., nightmares, fireworks, decreased health, red tail lights on cars, and sharing his war experiences with others), which is the most basic level of the fear structure. After that, I noted his behavioral responses to those fears (i.e., lashing out at his wife, and avoiding sleep, emotions, and talking about his wartime experiences). Last, I recorded his cognitions associated to his fears and/or behavioral responses (i.e., I’m going to hell, I can’t get close to anyone, they can’t handle it, they’ll think I’m a monster, I’m a horrible/evil person, I can’t let my guard down, and I deserve to be punished). As noted by the double-sided arrows in the picture, each component of the fear structure (i.e., fears, behavioral responses, and cognitions/meaning) are interconnected. The fears of certain things/situations lead to certain behaviors (e.g., avoiding his fears), which leads to developing cognitions about the fears. Similarly, Jerry’s cognitions about his traumatic experiences cause him to behave in a certain way, which reinforces his cognitions and behaviors and leads to him developing specific fears related to his traumatic experience, and then generalized to other associated things, situations,
When looking at and configuring Jerry’s fear structure, I used a bottom-up approach to better understand his PTSD symptoms. Specifically, I began by writing down his fears (i.e., nightmares, fireworks, decreased health, red tail lights on cars, and sharing his war experiences with others), which is the most basic level of the fear structure. After that, I noted his behavioral responses to those fears (i.e., lashing out at his wife, and avoiding sleep, emotions, and talking about his wartime experiences). Last, I recorded his cognitions associated to his fears and/or behavioral responses (i.e., I’m going to hell, I can’t get close to anyone, they can’t handle it, they’ll think I’m a monster, I’m a horrible/evil person, I can’t let my guard down, and I deserve to be punished). As noted by the double-sided arrows in the picture, each component of the fear structure (i.e., fears, behavioral responses, and cognitions/meaning) are interconnected. The fears of certain things/situations lead to certain behaviors (e.g., avoiding his fears), which leads to developing cognitions about the fears. Similarly, Jerry’s cognitions about his traumatic experiences cause him to behave in a certain way, which reinforces his cognitions and behaviors and leads to him developing specific fears related to his traumatic experience, and then generalized to other associated things, situations,