Preview

Susan Smith: a Dsm Iv Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
885 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Susan Smith: a Dsm Iv Analysis
Susan Smith: A DSM IV Analysis

Abnormal Psychology
November 15, 2010
Susan Smith: A DSM IV Analysis

On October 25, 1994, late in the evening. Susan Smith decided to take her two sons, Michael and Alex for a drive; little did they know it would be their last. Susan Smith drove her two sleeping children to a ramp off of a lake, jumped out of the car, released the brake, and stood by as the car drifted off and descended into the water. There is no doubt that this unspeakable act was not just a random, isolated moment of insanity of a young mother, but was the most extreme breaking point in a life that was poisoned early on by instability and abuse. To a healthy individual, there is no reasonable explanation for someone to commit such an act, but in Susan Smith’s mind, the months, and even years leading up to this horrible night are relevant. In this essay, the DSM IV will be used to construct a general psychological analysis of Susan Smith and what theoretical perspective offers the best explanation for her behavior(Montaldo, 2010). Susan Smith’s life was plagued with tragedies and abuse. When she was seven years old, hear parents divorced, then just five weeks later, her father committed suicide. This devastated Susan to the point that she became very distant(Montaldo, 2010). It wasn’t long before Susan’s mother remarried to a successful businessman. On the surface, the family appeared to be normal, but underneath the all-Amaerican family facade, incest was the families deepest secret. For many years, Susan Smith’s step father carried on an inappropriate sexual relationship with her. When Susan tried to report the abuse to her mother and to social services, little was done other than the step father moving out for a short while. Susan’s mother and the rest of the family was more concerned with their reputation being publicly questioned rather than the safety and metal health of Susan. Susan’s stepfather eventually moved back in only to continue to



References: Montaldo, C. (2010). Susan Smith - Narcissistic Delusions: Rejected Love Fueled the Murder of the Smith Children. Retrieved on November 13, 2010, form http://crime.about.com Sarason, I. G. & Sarason, B. R. (2005). Abnormal Psychology: The Problem of Maladpative Behavior (11 ed.), Pearson Prentic-Hall, pg. 59 – 82 Stronger, G. (2006). A Psychological Aspect of Susan Smith: Dependent Personality. Retrieved on November 13, from http://www.echeat.com

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Aileen was born in 1956 to her 16 year old mother. She was not born with any physical or mental disabilities. At the time of her birth her father was incarcerated for child molestation and he was also believed to be a schizophrenic, he hung himself in jail and Aileen never met him. When Aileen was 3 years old her mother abandoned her and her 4 year old brother and left them with her own parents who legally adopted them. The family struggled economically and by age 11 Aileen would engage in sexual activities for food, drugs and alcohol. Home life was not easy for Aileen as she claims to be sexually abused by her alcoholic grandfather and beaten by her grandmother. She would also engage in sexual activities with her brother and at age 14 she became pregnant and there was confusion on whether the father of the baby was her brother, Keith, or her grandfather’s friend who had raped her. She birthed the baby and put it up for adoption as well as dropping out of school. Shortly after all of this her grandfather kicked her out on the street. To stay alive she was forced to cling to prostitution to meet her basic needs and to stay alive. Growing up was extremely difficult and Aileen often felt worthless.…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lives of two sisters were derailed on July 11, 1984 at 2:00 in the afternoon in a small Mississippi town when Willie James Harris shattered and climbed through a window at the Scott home. Julie Scott, 16, and her sister, Marcie, 12, were home alone together. Harris forced both girls into a bedroom by gunpoint, then raped and beat them. After he collected money and valuables from the home, Harris beat the girls again, and stabbed and choked them (Leagle 1). The sisters survived and Harris was convicted, but this heinous, horrendous incident dramatically altered the lives of every member of the Scott family. The Scott sisters have had many hurdles to overcome. Being a victim of childhood sexual abuse, like the Scott sisters, is linked to…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A lot of human behavior patterns are based on genetics, including the human nervous system and brain, hormonal systems, neurology, and genetics. Andrea was diagnosed with depression and also took medication. She overdosed at her parent’s house in June 1999. Doctors told her she shouldn’t have anymore children because they saw the path she could be going down. They thought having more children would bring more stress and increase her depression and her trying to commit suicide. Despite what the doctor’s recommendation she had 5 children. She took care of her father as well who suffered from Alzheimer’s and “was completely out of it said Jutta Kennedy. Her mother also said how her father always doted on Andrea, she was his baby. When she was taken off her medication she killed her children the next day.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dsm-Iv Evaluation

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages

    For treatment, the process of helping fight against Schizoid personality disorder is a long one. One idea is for Josephine to write down when she may experience a stimulating emotion, such as happiness. She could then write this…

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story starts in the perspective of a young girl named Celie. Celie is an African American girl who is constantly abused by her father and is then forced to marry a man known as Mr. _____. Celie is used to being treated as if she is worthless and assumes that it is normal for every man to abuse his wife. The one thing that she looks forward to is the return of her sister, Nettie. The two were split up when Celie married Mr. _____. When Celie…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As her mother waits outside the bathroom door, Ruth Anne Boatwright, nicknamed Bone, is being beaten by her step-father, Glen. She looks into his menacing features and thinks, “it was nothing I had done that made him beat me. It was just me, the fact of my life. Who I was in his eyes and mine. I was evil” (Allison 110). Bone, the main character in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, comes to this irrational, self-deprecating conclusion as she is being abused one day and blames not her abuser, but her mere existence instead. However, it is Glen’s own insecurities that makes him resort to the physical violence aimed towards his step-daughter. This violence reinforces Bone’s self-blame and thus creates a never-ending vicious cycle as Glen…

    • 1979 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sally is a 31-year-old white single mother who was brought up in a small village in a rural area with both parents and her younger sister who now has a husband and children of her own. Sally lives alone with her children in the same village, close to her parents and sister who she regularly visits. Whilst Sally has a close relationship with her family, she feels that her family do not understand her distress leaving her feeling very lonely and isolated and longing for a family unit with her own children and a husband. Sally was in a stable 8 year relationship with the father of her children, when he suddenly left the family home after a minor argument and decided not to return, leaving her alone with a 12-month-old baby and a 5-year-old. Eventually the children’s’ father got in contact, stating that he could not handle the pressures of family life. Two years on and after many months of Sally pretending to be okay, she sought help at a local counselling…

    • 2063 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Embraced by the Needle

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Childhood memories of serial abandonment or severe physical and psychological abuse are common,” says Maté (306). The majority of the women and some men addicts Downtown East Vancouver are suffering from sexual assault from their childhood years. Maté gave a couple of examples from two of his clients from Portland. First, a 36 year-old cocaine user went from foster home to foster home; he was punished by getting dish soap poured down his throat and tied to a chair in a dark room at the age of 5. Next, a 32 year-old poet who suffers from mental…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cluster C personality disorder in the DSM-IV. Cluster C personality disorder is described as anxious or fearful. Females are more likely than males to have a Cluster C personality disorder (Joseph Rey, 1996).…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Richard Speck

    • 4429 Words
    • 18 Pages

    In Kirkwood, Illinois, Benjamin and Mary Speck became the proud parents to a baby boy, named Richard Benjamin Speck. Richard was the seventh of eight children, which was a financial hardship for his mother and father. Richard’s mother, a deeply religious woman, ran her household in the same mannerism as her dedication to religion. She prohibited any use of alcohol and tobacco. In one instance, she greatly chastised Benjamin at a church picnic for having a single beer. To provide for his family, Benjamin would pick up extra hours whenever he could at any of the plethora of jobs he held. Richard’s father had an amazing work ethic, being a farmhand, a logger, a packer and laying roof tiles. Whenever he had a spare moment, Richard’s father would take him on fishing outings where they would spend time together uninterrupted by anything or anyone. Their close relationship was brought to a halt when his father passed away of a heart attack at age 53. This devastated six year old Richard. His life as he knew it would be forever changed.…

    • 4429 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    For decades, psychologists have devised many treatment regimes for schizophrenia patients, with varying degrees of success and effectiveness. There have been great obstacles in their efforts, mainly due to the fact that patients of schizophrenia lack insight into their impaired conditions. Often patients refuse treatment of any kind because they do not perceive any mental illness associated with their behaviour. In particular, individuals suffering from paranoid schizophrenia regard therapy as intrusions from hostile outside forces, which reduces compliance on the part of the patient (Davison & Neale,1998). Other problems with treatment programs for schizophrenic’s is that they suffer from both positive and negative symptoms, each requiring different type of treatments. In order to combat the difficulty of treating schizophrenia, several techniques have been devised; psychoanalytic therapy, behavioural therapy, family therapy and most predominantly, drug therapies. Drug therapy is the primary form of treatment implemented at the onset of schizophrenia. The drug clozapine is very effective for many patients who do not respond to initial drug treatment programs and treats both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Advokat et al., 1999; Robinson et al., 1999). Moreover, a reduction in negative symptoms has also been noted to occur as individuals are treated with amisulpride and (Danion et al., 1999). The use of newer drugs to treat schizophrenia has produced fewer side effects in most patients. However, it has been found that although the use of risperidone to treat patients is very effective in treating the symptoms, there may be negative side effects for women using the drugs (Caracci,1999). As well, haloperidol has been one of the most widely used drugs for treating schizophrenia and is very effective, but if it is over-prescribed it could result in severe side effects for the patient (Yasui et al., 1999). Despite the possible…

    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This case highlights a marriage on the verge of collapse combined with violence and abuse. The two primary individuals in this case are Hans and his wife Marta, they also have five children between the two of them who play a vital role in this case (Plante, 2011, Chapter 1). This is a blended family like many families are in today’s society. Hans is reported to be a violent abusive man who not only abuses his wife but also his children, while Marta is considered to be distant towards her husband all while they deal with their ex-spouses and the (Plante, 2011, Chapter 1). The fact that there is children and violence involved leaves the therapist with no choice but to report the violence. The therapist has a legal responsibility to report the violence against the children to Child Protective Services (CPS) even if that results in Hans and Marta discontinuing therapy (Plante, 2011, Chapter 1). The couple forced the therapist to make the call the moment they mentioned the violence against the children. As it stands Hans is refusing to take responsibility for his violent behavior and Marta is not currently capable of standing up for herself or able to formulate a plan for when violence does occur (Plante, 2011, Chapter 1). Their story is one that…

    • 1284 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria for Conduct Disorder, conduct disorder can have one of three overarching characteristics: Firstly, negative patterns of behaviour are recurring and continually infringes upon the basic rights of others, violates major age-appropriate societal norms or break rules. These behaviours should be manifested by the presence of three or more of the criteria listed in Table 1 below in the past 12 months. In addition, at least one criterion should be present in the past six months. Table 1 below gives a brief description of these criteria.…

    • 90 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1999, biography, Girl, interrupted, Susanna Kaysen is diagnosed with a personality disorder at the age of 18. Beforehand, Susanna was experiencing unstable episodes and undergoing promiscuous activities. This later resulted in Susanna attempting to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of aspirin with alcohol. Thereafter, Susanna reconciled and voluntarily committed herself to a psychiatric facility. Throughout her time, Susanna was impacted severely by others actions and was influenced by others, but later on being able to reflect and reevaluate and be composed, she was able to have clear state of mind. In this film, psychopathology, in regards to borderline personality disorder, and social psychology, in regards to human behavior…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    As a result of her mother’s commitment to her marriage, Tina may experience a wide range of traumatic experiences. As a teenage girl she is predisposed to being violated by the ‘step’ male relatives that she’s living with. In this sense, she faces emotional, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of extended family (Finkerlhor & Browne; 1985). The type of foreseen traumatic experiences is mostly aggravated by Tina’s profile and situation in the family. Being a step daughter, whose mother constantly wants to make an effort to embrace the union places her in a disadvantaged angle where either one of her step family members may find her either as a threat or an accessory that can be utilised to his advantage. Looking at this scenario, one cannot rule out the huge possibility being of a sexual nature, this is due to the contemporary social behaviour within family units, where children have become ‘accessories’ to utilise for adults pleasure.…

    • 3041 Words
    • 87 Pages
    Best Essays