After reading the case study, I feel bad for Karen and I wanted to help her. According to the case study and the only information I know about Karen, I choose to use classical psychoanalytic psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud to proceed with her. This theory’s view on human nature is quite simple yet difficult to understand.. He said that it is fatalistic, and that we are under the control understand of biological and and instinctual instinctual drives. Karen as a woman woman has the female female and mother instinct. instinct. She chose to make her major career as a housewife housewife and mother. She made sure that that all her children children got enough of care care and love from a mother, until the children are mature enough to take care of themselves; or in other words, she would take care of them until they are not dependent on her anymore. She only took up a part time class for a bachelor’s degree when her children became adolescents. Besides that, it is human instinct to like beautiful things and Karen is no exception. From her appearance appearance and actions, we we can see that she has showed signs of low self-esteem self-esteem but she is covering it up. She avoids eye contact when talking and she speaks speaks rapidly. This shows that she is uncomfortable communicatin communicating g with people she does not know well. In addition, she is overweight and she also dresses meticulously, giving great attention to to details on her outfits. She is very careful and and precise not to to wear accessories and clothing that will make her look even fatter and older. In the presenting presenting problem, she mentioned mentioned that that she feels some some panic over reaching the age of 39. But on the other other hand she constantly constantly fidgets with her clothes showed that she is very uncomfortable wearing it or maybe she hates it; but she still wear it somehow to compensate the fact that she is an overweight person. Life instinct is the motivation motivation to gain gain pleasure and avoid avoid pain. Most probably she uses a lot of food to gain pleasure and to avoid pain such as the dissatisfaction dissatisfaction of her uneventful uneventful and predictable predictable life. The weight problem that she is having now is concerned with death instinct. It is an aggressive energy, energy, with an unconscious unconscious wish to to hurt self and others. others. By always eating eating to gain pleasure, pleasure, she now has has weight problem. problem. She is hurting herself by eating too much and putting her health into risk.
The structure of personality of this theory is divided into three parts which is id, ego, and superego. According to this theory, energy is distributed between all these three. Id is the primary source of psychic energy. It is present at birth and is part of the conscious. Now that she had communicated with mates at her university, she became aware that how she has limited herself, how she has fostered her family’s dependence on her, and how frightened she is of branching out from her roles as mother and wife. She had sacrificed a lot for her family but now she is getting tired of it and wants to go to work. Back when she was a child, she was always overwhelmed by her parents; she has to work really hard in hope to please them. The family demonstrated little affection in many ways. This in turn made Karen to turn her affection to her siblings by taking on the role of caring for her younger brother and sisters. In the one incident that occurred to her when she was six years old had haunted her and changed her personality. After that incident, she carried the feelings of guilt into her adolescence and that she repressed her own emerging sexuality. In addition, Karen always wanted the approval of her peers but then she was not willing to compromise her morals for fear of consequences. Furthermore, Karen also is quite an ego person. It is the second system to develop and it functions primarily in the conscious and in the preconscious mind. It also controls the wishes and desires of a person. She realized she has lived a very structured and disciplined life and that she has functioned largely by taking care of the home and the needs of her children and her husband. Somehow, to a certain degree she is no longer contented to do those anymore. Other than that she wanted to be more involved professionally and by that she meant she wants to get a job and not doing full time housewife anymore. But at the same time she is having fear that she might not success in professional world and the consequences is losing her family. From the history of presenting problem, she said that she has problems with her children especially her daughter Jane. She feel that all her children at the adolescent stage are now finding more of their satisfactions outside of the family and the home
and are spending increasing time with their friends. Karen noticed the changes and is concerned about losing them. In short she feels very much unappreciated by her children. Superego is in short your parents in your head. Karen’s father is a fundamentalist minster, a very distant, authoritarian and rigid father; while her mother is a housewife. She at times is very critical but at other times she was very supportive too. The relationship with her father is the kind that to never question anything, and to adhere to his rules and standards. Whenever she wanted to have any kind of fun she encountered her father’s disapproval and outright scorn. She has been taking care of her other siblings since she was young in order to please and win the approval of her parents. Maybe this is the reason she had took up the role of a housewife and taking care of her family nicely. Moreover, she was not allowed to date until she completed high school; at the age of 19 she married the first person she had dated. Probably this is the reason she feels unappreciated by her children and is losing them because they spending more time with their friends than at home. Karen also repeats her problems until they are resolved and she will keep repeating it until she is satisfied with the outcome. This is known as incomplete resolution leads to repetition compulsion. The only way to break the cycle is to become conscious of the cycle, understand what she really wants and go through the process of grieving and letting to. For example, she should really ask herself what does she actually want and discuss with her family. Due to her past experiences, she had difficulty in making and keeping friends and is not allowed to date. This results in always spend time at home with her family. Therefore she expects her children to do the same as she did. So when her three children have been going out a lot and spending a lot of time outside, she feels sad and unwanted by her children. Karen also presents anxiety and for two years she has been troubled with a range of psychosomatic complaints, including sleep disturbances, anxiety, dizziness, heart palpitations, and headaches. Besides that she also cries easily over trivial matters, often feels depressed, and has a weight
problem. This anxiety may be caused by the tension that arises out of conflict between id, ego, and superego. One type of this anxiety is neurotic anxiety. It means that the fear of doing something wrong and get punished. In this case, Karen is worried that if she goes out to the professional world, and end up failing, she will get the punishment for acting selfishly and losing her family. The most important part of the therapeutic goals is to make the unconscious conscious which means to help the client bring into the conscious the unconscious. The thing is to let Karen know that whatever is in her unconscious and whatever she really wants should be brought up and discuss it with her family members. She always get overwhelmed by her life as a housewife and with the reaching age of 39, she is wondering where the years have gone. She was unaware her life passing so quickly because it is kind of like a routine and boring. Other than that, another goal of psychoanalytical theory is to make her ego stronger so that her behavior is based on reality instead of instinctual cravings or irrational guilt. Karen should be aware that all her worries and fears of getting punished are not necessary and that it is her thinking too much. This is the part where counselor helps the client work through a developmental stage that was not resolved or where the client became fixated. To do this, we have to go back to her childhood or her psychosocial history. Besides that the therapeutic goal is to help the client to adjust to the demands of work, intimacy, and society. With the heavy duties of house works, Karen never had time to rest nor had any time for entertainment to let her relaxed. I as her therapist have functions and roles to accomplish. I will try to foster a transference relationship so that Karen will make projections unto me. Karen will project her unfinished business onto me for example her rigid and authoritarian father. This will give her a sense of safety and acceptance. Karen can freely explore difficult material and experiences from their past, gaining insight and working through unresolved issues. I will pay attention to Karen’s resistances such as places where the client got stuck; maybe during her childhood. All these are interpretations from a
counselor to help the client make connections such as letting her to gain insight into past and present events. Moreover countertransference also helped in this situation. This is because the therapist’s own feelings are triggered towards clients. It can help me to understand the world of Karen’s, for instance how other people must have viewed her; what was her feeling at that moment, and how she overcomes it. I expect my client to be the same as what it has been written on the case study and I expect her to change better gradually for every counseling session. I also expect her to be honest at all times and be responsible of her own self. I got a feeling that the relationship between me and my client will be close, because I will use the role of countertransference in this therapeutic session. Both of us will be emotionally connected since I had understood her world, her feelings, and her perception. Lastly, I expect all the future sessions with Karen will work well, and expect Karen to be mentally healthy; able to handle her problems and lead a happy life in the future after she finishes her counseling sessions.
