Essay on "Jungian-Based Psychology"

Essay 11 pages (3474 words) Sources: 11

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Jungian Analysis

Patient Background and Description

The patient is a middle-aged male who has been a well-known entertainment personality for several decades. As a professional radio personality, he talked to his audience in a free-flowing, extemporaneous manner for approximately 25 hours every week for much of his career, and for approximately 20 hours per week since 2007. The patient was married for almost twenty years, during which time he raised three daughters, aged 17, 15, and 7 at the time of the marital separation preceding a final divorce about a year later in 2000. The patient has been remarried since 2007 to a professional model 19 years his junior.

The patient is publicly known for or associated with various controversies, including his capacity for viciously berating his subordinates on the air, heated long-term feuds with other celebrities and media figures perpetuated through his access to a public communications medium, for sexually-charged humor and accusations of routinely exploiting females through sexual humor. This individual is likely most famous for his long-term battle with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in connection with language and conversational topics that were deemed "obscene" and which subjected his employers to substantial fines during the course of his career on terrestrial radio before his transition to the unregulated satellite radio medium in 2006.

Paradoxically, this ruthless, chauvinistic, and argumentative individual was a dedicated family man throughout his first marriage and proved to be a very responsible and loving father to his daughters. Despite continual scatological humor and humor of a sexual nature that emphasized toilette humor, his sexual frustration as a married man and easy regular access to potential sexual opportunities outside of his marriage by virtue of his celebrity status, the patient was never sexually unfaithful during his marriage. That relationship deteriorated largely because his commitment to his work limited his availability as a partner to his wife and because of his extreme reluctance to participate in any social activities with his wife during what he referred to as his "precious downtime." Meanwhile, the subject had incorporated many highly persona family issues into his comedy, baiting his wife into telephone arguments live on the air and famously parodying his wife's miscarriage prior to their first child. The marital dissolution was the culmination of the mutual realization between the marital partners that the patient would never agree to make the necessary changes to make his wife happier and their mutual decision that they were no longer compatible as life partners. The actual divorce was negotiated fairly, uncontested by any litigation and the patient has intimated that he consented to split an estate of between $10 million and $20 million at the time.

Currently, the patient lives with his second wife in Manhattan and in Southampton Beach; he maintains an amicable relationship with his former wife and sees his three daughters regularly. His daughters have a good relationship with his second wife. The subject is absolutely opposed to having more children and his second wife has no specific desire to have children either, but has expressed in no uncertain terms that she is absolutely opposed to abortion and would be compelled for moral reasons to bear a child in the event that she became pregnant. As a result, the patient, despite being monogamously married, insists on wearing a condom during marital coitus. However, the patient also refers to being "obsessive" about germs and acknowledges that this might also play some role in this particular choice. The patient also uses alcohol gel extensively and has difficulty in any social situation where handshakes are expected because of his reluctance to expose himself to germs. For similar reasons, the subject related that he prefers not to touch his own penis when urinating and he described the manner that he has developed for using his underwear to support his penis so that he can accomplish the task of urinating without any direct contact with his penis. The subject is extremely conscious about keeping coworkers from touching his belongings or his work space, and if he must handle fan correspondence, he insists that it be first sealed in transparent plastic wrap before it is handed to him. Since the first reports of bedbug outbreaks in New York City, he has retained the regular scheduled services of a bedbug detection company and submits his home to a complete search by a trained canine once a month and anytime a new piece of furniture is brought into the home, at a cost of several thousand dollars per search. He admits to being a "hypochondriac" who often fears having any disease of which he becomes aware and he has feared contracting tumors from the use of the chemicals in antiperspirants and cellular telephones.

The patient reports feelings of extreme but diffuse anxiety, resentment of other for various reasons that he realizes consciously are unjustified, and describes himself as "tormented" in many respects that prevent him from enjoying his life and from making others around him miserable. His second wife has been very accommodating of his foibles so far, but he admits to fears about whether that might change in the long-term or after he retires from radio and spends most of his time at home. He has also expressed resentment and jealousy over his wife's ability to enjoy herself socially, despite the fact that she would welcome his company and that it is strictly his choice not to share in most of her social events because of his need to get to bed by 8:00 PM in order to get up at 4:30 AM and perform the next morning. Despite being almost two decades younger, his wife is often forced to assume the caretaker role and the subject admits that she is the mother to his child in that respect. The subject describes himself as being very jealous of the male attention his wife receives although he has no specific fears of her being unfaithful to him. Nevertheless, their most serious fight occurred after she allowed a male masseuse to massage her while they were on a Caribbean vacation.

Finally, the subject has always had a contentious yet loving relationship with his parents. He has spoken at length publicly and also generated extensive humorous parodies about various issues in his family-of-origin relationships. Among other things, he has described (and played recordings of) his father's angry tirades in which he called the subject a "moron" and warned him "not to be stupid" throughout his childhood. According to the subject, his father became attentive to him only after the subject became professionally successful. The subject has also described and parodied the manner in which his mother controlled his life and also burdened him with her fears and traumatic experiences during her childhood. She continues to be hyper-critical of the subject today but they have an outwardly loving relationship.

Clinical Overview of Potential Jungian Issues

Clearly, this subject presents significant issues in relation to the individuation process (Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008). His mother dominated his life both in concrete terms (i.e. strict house rules) and also emotionally by burdening him with her sorrows and fears, among other things. The subject also exhibits issues that likely originate in the concept of the anima archetype, in that, among other things, he appeared in female attire and makeup on the cover of his first book, which he also titled Miss America. He routinely adopts an exaggerated effeminate voice and mannerisms in much of his comedy and often expresses jealousy at the sexual opportunities available to women (Edinger, 1972). The subject exhibits numerous tendencies toward compulsivity and neuroses that are likely connected to unexpressed resentment over his mother's actual control over him throughout his life and also of his father's constructive control exercised by virtue of his withholding praise while expressing regular insulting criticism earlier in the subject's life (Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008). The subject reports often dreaming of being mocked or ridiculed and of finding himself in situations where he disappoints those close to him. Finally, the also subject exhibits substantial issues in relation to the formation of the shadow archetype, such as in the profound dichotomy between his on-air, rebellious "bad-boy" persona and his off-air conservatism, neuroticism, and gentleness toward loved ones (Murdock, 2009; Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008).

Jungian Analyses of Issues Presented

Individuation, Neuroses, and the Shadow

As a child, the subject's mother frequently made explicit references to the traumas she endured as a child, such as in connection with family members perishing during the Nazi Holocaust in Europe, the unexpected (and unexplained) death of her mother when she was a child, the physical abuse and emotional neglect she sustained from her father, and her profound fear of doctors. She religiously checked the subject's underwear for "skid marks" (as the subject says) into his adolescence, shamed him in that regard in front of others, berated him for transgressions such as leaving a t-shirt unfolded on his bed, and forbade his keeping any animals in the house as pets… READ MORE

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