Case Study on "Case Conceptualization From a Psychoanalytic Object Relation Framework"

Case Study 15 pages (4898 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Conceptualization

Lyle Wilder (Charlie Sheen's character in the Fireman, originally titled Bad Day on the Block)

Lyle Wilder is a male, estimated to be 35-40 years old. He currently lives alone. He has an estranged family -- a wife and young son. Little is known about Lyle's life as a child, although he has a probable history of family violence, with a high likelihood that his father was violent. There is also a probability that the father's violence extended not only to the young Lyle, but also to his mother. This learned pattern of behavior then manifests itself later in Lyle's life. In his mind, he is showing love by "disciplining" his son, and even his wife, in an extreme and violent manner. His extreme focus on discipline as the primary way to communicate with children is an indicator of this. Also, his focus of parental communication also indicates a tendency towards the father-son relationship.

Another important indicator of family violence is Lyle's tendency to quote from the Bible, particularly during his violent episodes. He seems to be focused upon proverbs and the disciplinary aspect of the parental function. In other words, he uses the Bible to justify his behavior; a paradigm probably learned from his father.

Lyle holds a high-stress job as fireman, and had recently received an award for saving a baby from a burning building. However, it is unknown to his peers that he left the mother of said baby in the house to perish. He justified this behavior by arguing that the mother was involved in drug addiction and dealing, and was therefore not a fit mother for the child. He appears to believe completely in the logic of this decision and shows now remorse at having destroyed a life.

In terms of his relationships and social connections, these are problematic for Lyle. He has a tendency towards racism and other forms of prejudice, which often precedes extreme violence.

Not much is known about his work relationships, but in the light of the above, it might be assumed that these can also be problematic, and frequently violent.

Given these conditions surrounding Lyle's mental and emotional development, there are various problems that present. As mentioned, his violent tendencies resulted in the estrangement of his wife and son. One example of this is that he once used a gun to play "Russian Roulette" with his wife as the only possible victim. She survived the incident, and followed this by obtaining a restraining order against him. The son witnessed the incident; it is unknown whether Lyle was aware of this at the time, and whether he would have displayed this same behavior had he known of his son's presence.

His relationship with his neighbors is particularly problematic. There appears to be some form of jealousy that they are together, and Lyle's anger is initially focused upon the young boy, Zach. Displacing his feelings of loss and anger at his family resulted in Lyle's terrorization of the Braverton family, focusing specifically on Zach as the "wayward son."

The incident that starts the episode is an accident caused by a remote control aeroplane belonging to Zach. A window in Lyle's house is broken, and Lyle insists that discipline should be the response. When the Braverton family does not comply with Lyle's ideal of violent punishment, he becomes enraged.

It appears that Lyle also feels somewhat disempowered by the strong unit and apparent happiness of the Bravertons. This causes further rage, which he displaces towards the repairman that mistakes Lyle's home for the Braverton's. He kills the repairman violently, and follows this by murdering two police officers who arrived to investigate the Braverton's complaints against Lyle.

Lyle also displace blame for the consequences of his actions towards the Bravertons. He is unable to face his own responsibility in terms of the fact that his own violent tendencies are responsible for his family's estrangement. He believes that the Bravertons are responsible, in that they told his wife lies about him. He never makes the connection between incidents such as the Russian Roulette game and the fact that his wife and son fear him enough to leave.

In summary, the problems that present themselves are generally focused upon Lyle's human relationships. He is unable to maintain a functional family relationship with those closest to him. He is also unable to sustain friendship-type relationships with people such as his neighbors. In the wider social circle, he is also unable to maintain healthy and constructive relationship with other human beings from his social environment.

From an analytic/object-relations viewpoint, one might apply ideas from psychoanalysts such as Freud and Horner to diagnose Lyle's exact problems, and to create a possible therapeutic solution for him that might prove effective.

In terms of his ego functions, for example, Lyle's problematic relates to his relation to reality, regulation and control of drives, his thought processes, defense mechanisms, autonomous and synthetic functions, as well as his object relations in terms of family and wider social relationships.

Lyle's relation to reality has been severely affected by his childhood. He grew up in an environment where violence justified in biblical terms was the norm. Love was shown only by means of violence. This is the platform that Lyle then used to show his own love towards others. In terms of family, he mercilessly abused his wife, and probably his young son as well. Losing them, he displaces his "love" towards the Braverton family and their children. The loss of his own family might be said to have been the final encouragement towards a break with reality.

This break with reality however also indicated before Lyle lost his family. When saving the baby, he leaves the mother to burn to death as "punishment" for exposing her young child to drugs. He justifies this extreme action by citing her apparent lack of ability to care for her child's health. His break with reality is however not complete, as he shows an awareness that this action would not be justifiable to others. He therefore keeps quite about the woman he left in the home. He is never exposed for this murder, and instead receives a decoration for heroically saving the child.

In terms of diagnosis, one might therefore estimate that Lyle does suffer a break from reality, but that this break is not complete. The same is true of his first act of murder after the loss of his family. The he hides the murdered repairman in his house, but presents a veneer of civility when the police arrive to investigate complaints against him. He understands that the police would arrest him if they find the murdered man, which indeed they try to do. Hence he attempts to hide this from them, which indicates an ability to reason and think somewhat logically.

As noted above, Lyle has extreme difficulty regulating and controlling his drives, especially as these relate to violence. His greatest problematic presents in terms of his relationship to children. On the one hand, he feels protective towards them, as with the baby he saved. It appears however that this protection drive can become extreme, as indicated by the murder of the baby's mother.

His belief in discipline and punishment as the only and best forms of parental love relates to his violent tendencies in such a way that they are the only paradigms he is able to offer his own child and his "surrogate" children in the form of the Braverton siblings. Also, he is unable to control his extreme anger when Zach's airplane flies through his window and when the repairman asks for the Bravertons.

Lyle's reasoning also presents a problematic, and relates closely to the manifestation of his break with reality. Reasoning is classified as deductive, inductive, or abductive. Deductive reasoning relates to determining the truth of a matter by means of the rules of logic and a starting premise. One such premise is that Lyle's family has left them. However, he displays faulty deductive reasoning by blaming the Bravertons instead of himself for this. To observers, it is clear that Lyle is to blame. Lyle's deductive reasoning might then be conceptualized by means of the following: If my family leaves me, the Bravertons are to blame. My family has left me. Therefore it is the Bravertons' fault. While it is a valid deduction in terms of the initial premise, the reasoning is misapplied.

Inductive reasoning in turn refers to the determination of truth by means of a starting set of beliefs or observations. Lyle's break with reality also entails faulty inductive reasoning. His set of beliefs and observations were largely sculpted by his early family life. Observing the faulty belief that parental love equals frequent punishment, for example, results in his own loss of his wife and son. Unable to understand this in the light of his own reasoning, he conveniently transfers blame to the Bravertons.

Abductive reasoning is the most problematic in Lyle's case. This is a type… READ MORE

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