Diagnostic Analysis of Human Behavior in the Social Environment
Stephen Brown is an African-American aged 55 years of age, divorced with the custody of 2 children every weekend. Stephen was a Director of supportive housing program however, he was incarcerated because of an embezzlement. After serving a jail term and released, Stephen faces challenges in securing another employment despite that he has a CASAC license. However, he is a very capable individual despite a history of his disorder.
I am an employment specialist, and Stephen approaches me that he needs employment to sustain himself and his family. As an employment specialist, I have given a counsel to avoid a dishonest behavior because his dishonesty has taught him a lesson. When we were discussing on how he got himself into the dishonest behavior, he was unable to face the fact and digressed into another topics when we reached the discussion about his past fraudulent behavior.
However, Stephen has a difficulty in falling asleep in the night because of his anxious thoughts of being unable to provide to himself and his two kids. Stephen was divorced after losing his job and was preoccupied with an anxious thought of wining the love of his kids and their mother. His mind is also preoccupied on how he will treat his kids with lavish birthday parties, have a trip with them to Disneyworld and buy them jewelry. However, he cannot afford the expenses since he is unemployed and only a beneficiary of SNAP, SSI, and unemployment benefit, which are his only sources of income. Sometimes, he is able to find a short-term work such as delivering milk in small truck to prisoners or deliver a lecture to prisoners. Only a reputable job Stephen is able to secure is a two-day job at Belmont Stakes as a Parking Attendant. However, Stephen still tries to make himself feel big by accusing me of having a little experience as an employment specialist, which make me unable to find work for him. Sometimes, he speaks highly about himself, talk like a big shot, laugh loudly, and communicate his needs for an employment opportunity.
Symptom: Lack of employment and experience of jail term have made Stephen to develop symptoms such as anxiety, intrusive thoughts, inability to sleep, nervousness, always exhausted and tired, and pain at upper back because of worrying. The outcomes of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) reveals that Stephen is suffering narcissistic personality disorder because he is always emphasizing on his difficult situation.
Moreover, Stephen has HIV symptom because of his weight loss, and always cold, which make him to wear sweater constantly. A significant behavioral pattern revealed that Stephen was being haunted from his childhood social environmental background, loss of employment, and unable to take care of his children making him to develop an anxiety narcissistic personality disorder.
Part 2: Formulation
The paper carries out the differential diagnosis for Stephen using DSM-5 technique. In order words, the differential diagnosis determines which of the two or more factors that the client is suffering. The strategy is to systematically compare the clinical findings. The DSM-5 reveals that the symptom of the disorder can be diagnosed using the following criteria:
A. Significant impairments of personality functioning that manifests by:
1. Self-functioning impairments (a or b):
a. Identity: such as exaggerated self-appraisal, vacillate between extremes, and self-esteem regulation.
b. Self-direction: Unreasonably seeing oneself as exceptional.
AND
2. Interpersonal functioning impairment (a or b):
a. Empathy: Impaired ability to identify or recognize with the feelings or the needs of others.
b. Intimacy: Relationships largely superficial
B. Pathological personality
Antagonism, which is characterized by:
a. Grandiosity: a feeling of entitlement, self-centeredness; firmly holding a belief that he is better than others.
b. Attention seeking: Admiration seeking.
C. Impairments in personality
D. impairments in one's personality functioning. (Ronningstam, 2009).
Differential diagnosis
Stephen is not suffering from depression because he is able to get out of bed in the morning, and perform different home functions. Moreover, he is able to attend his two-day job when hired and is able to take care of his two kids on weekends by taking them to the amusement parks. Additionally, he has ability to visit the Social Security office if he does not receive his unemployment check at the end of week. However, Stephen is suffering emotional abuse from his father who devoted his entire love to his five female children. Stephen was emotional abused in his early age, and always feel insecurity. In his early age, he was always subconsciously trying to impress his father by proving to his father that he was powerful and smart. Thus, Stephen believes that he is not manlike, masculine, and powerful if he is unable to earn a dollar to take care of children. Moreover, Stephen is always troubled with thinking whether he will get hired and provide for his family...
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