Biopsychosocial assessment of antwone fisher research paper

Identity

Age- 24 years
Ethnicity – African American
Occupation- seaman with US navy
Medium of communication- English
Background:
Antwone was born on 8th of august, 1976 in a correctional facility home for women in Ohio State. Antwone does not know the reason of his mother, Eva mae’s imprisonment. Antwone, never saw his father, Edward Elkins who was killed before Antwone’s birth. In fact he came to know about his father’s last name very recently. After his birth, Antwone was sent to an orphanage by state social services. Antwone states that his mother never came to see him. He says how he always wanted to see his mother and used to fantasize about her but never tried to search her. After spending two years in the orphanage, he was sent to a foster home of Mrs. Tate in Cleveland. In his new home, he experienced some very bitter things. He was beaten and burnt and was also sexually assaulted by Mrs. Tate and Nadine, her relative. Antwone was accompanied by other kids who also faced similar things in the home of mrs. Tate. He was often beaten, tied up in a dark basement. He remembers that how Mrs. Tate, An ardent Christian in church, used to abuse him sexually, physically and mentally but Mr. Tate pitied him. Antwone also liked Mr. Tate for his decent and mild behavior. Once when he opposed such atrocities, he was kicked from the foster home but it gave him immense pleasure. He felt heroic about himself as he stood up against something that was wrong. He again went to orphanage and from there he was sent to a social reform centre. After attaining age of 18, he was employed as a social worker and paid $67. It gave him a pleasure of earning and standing at own. Antwone left the shelter and went to his friend, Jesse. Jesse was living with his family and used to support them at own. Antwone remembers death of his friend and describes how he was shot by the shop owner while robbing the shop.

Present situation/problem:

Antwone was submitted in medical centre of US navy for a psychiatric assessment. Earlier he assaulted an officer and pleaded guilty and was restricted to his sip for a period of 45 days. He was demoted to third grade and was assigned to services. Though he had a history of repeated aggressive behavior and poor self control in moments of anger, his contention for this particular instance was that since his senior officer abused him with racial remarks, he was beaten. Antwone was referred for psychiatric sessions because of his aggressive behavior and to treat anger management. At the end of this treatment, he would be given a letter of recommendation to his senior officials about his behavior and whether he is fit for his services or not.
Antwone is well dressed, clean shaved man. He performs his duties reasonably and respects his officers. He salutes them while on duty and shows respect to his seniors. He is mild, well spoken and responds soberly and appropriately. Antwone is a responsible employee who understands his duties, maintains eye contacts with his officials during any conversation. He listens music, apart from writing poetry and drawing. Antwone knows two languages and tries to learn new languages and other things.

Environment and occupation:

Antwone childhood was a nightmare and he was raised in orphanage without is mother or father. He has no parents. Antwone, Currently works with US navy as a seaman and as a steady source of income. Recently he was demoted and his salary was also deducted as part of punishment. Antwone has no home of his own and resides in the barracks of S navy. He is medically insured and US navy takes care of his medical expenses.

Social status:

Antwone is single and has never been married. He is very close to his girlfriend, Cheryl who is also his colleague in US navy. He has a strong relation with his girlfriend and finds it very steady. Cheryl, a supportive friend is antwon’s strength and helps him at several important junctures of his life.

Relationship status:

Antwone has sexual as well as emotional relation with his girlfriend, Cheryl. He was sexually and physically abused in his teenage. Antwone has a history of sexual, physical and mental abuse and is not only aggrieved but also very skeptical about relationships.

Evaluation of Antwone’s emotional, personal, psychological, professional and social performance:

Antwone fisher is blessed with a number of strengths. He is very humble and capable of understanding when his behavior was objectionable and when he was rude. He is respectful to his seniors, friends and is well aware of that he needs to control his anger. He is clean shaved, intelligent, well dressed gentleman who makes eye contact with everybody while talking. Antwone was very serious about his duty and always obeyed his seniors. He always appeared to be good navy personnel. The behavior that he possesses is a result of his childhood memories, problems in is raising, lack of love, lack of affection, lack of good environment and hardships that he faced in his childhood. Due to hardships of his childhood and due to lack of any social support, he has a feeling of insecurity, low self esteem and a false ego. These weaknesses of his behavior cased affected his whole personality in a substantial manner. In beginning sessions, he refused to open up and talk about his life, hardships and did not make eye contact while talking but when he felt comfortable, he was very much friendly. Antwone is willing to talk, he conveyed everything honestly and co-operated during sessions. Mr. Davenport says, “ Mr. Fisher is honest even in anger” (Schore, 2000). Antwone’s reactions were noticeable during his sessions. He seemed sad and painful while talking about Mrs. Tate while at the same time; he was very pleasant and smiling while talking about Mr. Tate. Antwone’s expressions and emotions were changed as and when the characters of his story changed. While talking about his family, mother and father he was extremely sad and looked shattered. He was sad about his friend Jesse but blushed while talking about his girl friend, Cheryl.

Analysis of Antwone’s situation:

The social system that we have developed in our society is a complex system and is divided in micro or macro levels. This system includes individuals, families, communities, societies, and organizations. Each of them is correlated and affects behavior and existence of one another. System theory is interrelated and affects every aspect of one’s life and existence. On the basis of system theory, we see that systems involved in antwone’s life are prison, orphanage, foster care, and the US navy. These systems have affected his whole life in a substantial manner. antwone’s traumatic experiences of his childhood and especially with Mrs. Tate, damaged homeostasis and stability that affected his bond with others. Antwone never lived in a system where his brothers lived with him, the children were pitted against one another, thus every person of his foster home developed a micro system of their own. Since he has now found a family of his own, he has become a part of family system, he tries to copy other’s emotions. Antwone, in Dr. Davenport’s session, gives and takes inputs, expresses himself and also receives feedback about his behavior from Dr. which makes him to assimilate several other things in his behavior. Now he has become a part of system that helps him in adopting certain things of his life and his homeostasis remains intact (P. Levounis and B. Arnaout, 2010).
Further it is necessary to assess antwone’s case based on object relation theory as well as attachment theory. These both theories are relevant for the present case and applied to the extent as Antwone has faced several negative situations in his childhood by his relationships and especially by caregivers of his childhood (Kernberg, 1995). His case will be further put on the testing in respect of his present relationships and life cycle considering his interpersonal and interpsychic situation. Humans share a lot of their behavior with animals, especially about their safety and survival. We can learn a lot about human behavior by studying animals and their behavior. Attachment is something that is required for the existence of animals as well as is necessary for the security of humans. A child learns these steps of survival from one who gives him care. In the present case, child has a history of mental, physical, and sexual abuse in his childhood by his caregivers. Only relationship that he remembers pleasant was with his friend Jesse who unlike others gave him affection and a shelter. Antwone felt safe with his friend Jesse, he felt that there is Jesse who can provide him a shelter whenever he needs. It assured him a sense of security (Simon, 1990). The same sense of security Antwone gets now with dr. davenport who gives him treatment, suggestions and takes care of him but initially when Antwone was told about termination from his job, he became highly insecure of losing everything that he had. Idea of Attachment is very strong in humans and child finds a sense of attachment with his caregiver irrespective of the fact that she is abusive towards him. Antwone describes how he tried to please Mrs. Tate so that she starts liking instead of hating him. Since he was utterly abused by Mrs. Tate, he developed a sense of insecurity in relations and became afraid of betrayals in relationships. His attachment was badly affected because he was mentally, physically and sexually abused by his caregiver. He never experienced love and care of his parents. Antwone felt complete separation as His mother left him in his early childhood and refused to accept him.
Object relations theory recognizes an individual as an object and keeps all the blames away from the object. This theory holds relationships responsible for problems as we find in this case. Since Antwone had no relationship in his childhood, he was not to be blamed for the abnormalities of his behavior. His mother and father were not there to take care of him and the caregiver, who was supposed to give him a good raisings, abused him sexually mentally and physically. Relationships of childhood decide whether a child is going to be a good man or not and in the given case, the child was thoroughly abused. This theory recognizes objects as good or bad according to their nature and behavior. Antwone rarely experienced any good object in his childhood and when he grew up, hardships and experience of facing bad objects affected his behavior substantially. A child never comes out of his past experiences and his past affects his future. Antwone also feels alike and says “ I am still growing” (Goldstein, 1995).
Cognitive theory discusses how thoughts affect feeling and behavior of an individual. Several research suggests that brain of children who are abused is comparatively small than those who lead a normal life. In this case, Antwone faced all hardships of life in his childhood which affected his thought process in a substantial manner. The same was reflected on his behavior and way of thinking. He found himself unable in controlling his anger and it landed him in trouble. He tried to be sober and mild but at times, he was unable to control his aggression due to his tainted past.

References

Goldstein, E. (1995). Ego psychology and social work practice. New York: The Free Press.
Kernberg, O. F. (1995). Object relations theory and clinical psychoanalysis. Oxford: Jason Aronson.
P. Levounis and B. Arnaout. (2010). Handbook of Motivation and Change: A Practical Guide for Clinicians. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Pub.
Schore, A. (2000). Attachment and the regulation of the right brain. Attachment & human development , 23-47.
Simon, H. A. (1990). Invariants of human behavior. Annual review of psychology , 41: 1-19.