Question

obin Henderson was a 30-year-old married Caucasian woman with no children who lived in a middle-class urban area with her husband. Robin was referred to a clinical psychologist by her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist had been treating Robin with pharma- cotherapy (primarily antidepressant medication) for more than 18 months. During this time, Robin had been hospitalized at least 10 times (one hospital- ization had lasted 6 months) for treatment of suicidal ideation (and one near- lethal suicide attempt) and numerous instances of suicidal gestures, including at least 10 instances of drinking Clorox bleach and self-inflicting multiple cuts and burns. Robin was accompanied by her husband to the first meeting with the clinical psychologist. Her husband stated that both he and the patient's fam ily considered Robin too lethal to be outside a hospital setting. Consequently, he and her family were seriously contemplating the viability of securing long-term inpatient care. However, Robin expressed a strong preference for outpatient treatment, although no therapist had yet appeared to be willing to take her as an outpatient case. The clinical psychologist agreed to accept Robin into therapy as long as she committed to work toward behavioral change and stay in treatment for at least 1 year; the therapist later pointed out repeatedly that this also meant that Robin agreed not to attempt suicide. Clinical History Robin was raised as an only child. Both her father (who worked as a sales- man) and her mother had histories of depression and alcohol abuse. Although the therapist did not learn of this until well into therapy, Robin had suffered

What personality theory can best be used to explain Robins behavior and why?

Answer 1

After reading the case history, I think the best suitable personality theory for this case should be Eysenck’s Personality theory. Let me explain why

1- In this case, we can see that the mental disorders shown by Robin Henderson inherited from her mother, her mother suffered from mental problems as well as behavioral deviation.

2- The theory of Eysenck, based on the biological factors, that an individual inherits a type of nervous system that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment.

In my opinion, there is no accurate personality theory which can be able to completely characterize with the case of Robin so that we can use multiple personality theories to analyze her behavior.

The psychoanalysis theory can define her abnormal behavior, her unconscious mind polished by past life and her behavior showing fear of isolation so when her friends cancel their plans, she feels alone and react abnormal.