Susan M. presents as the mother of a nine year old boy who school psychologists have described as:
...seeking undue attention, gets involved in power struggles, seeks revenge or tends to withdraw.
The boy has not only been involved in disruptive behavior in school (which resulted in the referral of the case to this psychologist), he has also been involved in fights with other children in the neighborhood. While primarily the child's behavior is aggressive, there are those moments when he seems to simply give up, grows quiet and uncommunicative, withdrawing from everyone.
Susan describes herself as feeling great frustration over the child's behavior as well as having feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness concerning changing the boy's behavior. Upon further inquiry into these sentiments, it was determined that, for about a month, Susan has been experiencing sleep disturbances (insomnia), poor appetite, feelings of self-reproach and worthlessness, and difficulties concentrating--all of which are associated with clinical depression (see: American Psychiatric Association, 1987).
Selected Intervention and Selection Rationale
The intervention approach selected for this case is the Adlerian approach. First, this approach is selected because Adler's theoretical notions of human behavior and treatment of dysfunctional behavior was specifically developed using a focus on feelings of worthlessness and inferiority---feelings which accord with Susan M.'s depressive state.
Regarding Adler's views in this area, his conceptual foundation holds that people have a drive to strive for superiority (creativity, perfection, etc.) which develops as a reaction to the need to overcome feelings of inferiority. Adler assumed that everyone experiences some feelings of inferiority, as a result of either real or imagined defects in their bodies, their place in their families, or their experiences in social interactions with others.
It ...