CASE INTEGRATION OF DIFFERENT THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SUBSTANCE
USE DISORDER
Psychodynamic Perspective
We chose Erich Fromm's Humanistic Analysis for the Psychodynamic perspective theory.
Human dilemma, according to Fromm, is caused by a lack of satisfaction with any human
needs. As a result, people feel compelled to fulfill them somehow, whether positively or
negatively. In the client's case, to meet his needs for relatedness, he has resorted to a
mechanism of escape to reduce his basic anxiety. He has taken conformity which manifests
in him doing what he's asked to do to please his friends, like doing drugs and stealing. Here,
you can see that client give up their individuality and become whatever other people desire
them to be so that they wouldn't feel lonely, isolated, and homeless. Conformity is the jailer of
freedom and the enemy of growth. This, we believe, is what happened in the client's case.
According to Eric Fromm, self-awareness contributes to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and
homelessness. The historical background of the client, specifically in his relationship with his
parents, is what leads him to have a self-awareness that gives rise to his feelings of loneliness.
Neither the mother nor the father of the client is affectionate towards him and his other siblings.
The father used to be the only earner in the big nuclear family; thus, he always spent his time
on his work, failing to fulfill the love, security, and warmth that his children needed, not to
mention his nature of strictness.
On the other hand, the mother also fails to give proper attention to the children. She is
constantly busy with household chores, lacks awareness of the outside world, and is
uneducated. Hence, the client does not have a satisfactory relationship with his parents. He
constantly feels neglected, distant, and lacks communication. The client also has a nonproductive orientation, an exploitative character. Fromm explained the exploitative character
as a person who aggressively takes what they desire rather than passively receiving it. This
explains the client's personality towards their habit of stealing. At first, the client was doing it
to meet his needs because his parents could not fulfill his expenditures. Though, with time,
stealing became more of a habit than a necessity for the client. Because he was so used to
theft, he couldn't break free from it. The client also shows moral hypochondriasis or a
preoccupation with guilt about previous transgressions. People preoccupied with themselves
are more inclined to internalize their experiences and focus on their physical well-being and
moral values. In the client's case, he often feels guilty. He internalizes the bad things he has
done and his experience with his ex-girlfriend, making establishing relationships with other
people difficult for him. The client also lost interest in sex and watching porn after the break-
up, and whenever he would get into sexual activity, he would think things like "I have done
wrong," "This relationship is illegal," and "Now I should make a marry."
As the result of obtaining self-awareness, the client's feelings of loneliness and deprivation
are, in actuality, rooted in the evolutionary development of the brain's capability to think outside
of physiological needs. Man has long since been separated from the natural world, thus further
extending their needs, which, in turn, adds even more complexity to acquiring fulfillment. The
client has also shown the qualities of a person who uses their freedom. Freedom is expressed
as a means of filling in the gaps in the absence of love and care by following one's own desired
methodologies in response. His expression of freedom is mixed, as his responses align with
his ideology and his friends' influence. For instance, even though his father disapproves of his
friends, he still goes to them to gain emotional support. This situation also shows the burden
of freedom because his decision disappointed his father, which made him feel disheartened
and isolated from him. With his past experiences of doubt and fluctuating troubled behavioral
displays, the client faces basic anxiety by managing his exposure to drugs and chemical
substances.
Furthermore, this evolutionary element explores the context of freedom and its purpose for
every individual. This justified his thieving behavior because it helped the client meet his
personal needs, corresponding to his family's inability to provide. His thieving acts did not
considerably affect his moral conscience until later when he had the chance to reflect upon
his actions. The client's adjustment to the group's harmful and unpopular norms only provided
more harm than good for him. He was exposed to the usage of drugs, the conduction of serial
theft, living a dull life full of lies, and overturning his basic principles of life. And thus, conformity
is claimed to be both the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
Humanistic/Existential Perspective
We chose Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Theory for the Humanistic Perspective as the client
is experiencing "conditions of worth" and incongruence. The client wants to be accepted by
his peers, and he believes that stealing and using drugs are necessary to achieve this goal:
his actions are a condition of worth. As a result, the client pretends to want to do whatever his
friends want him to do to gain their approval and, in some cases, their affection. The client
opted not to reject his friends' invitation for fear of disappointing them. Incongruence manifests
itself between the client's real self and his ideal self. Expectations placed on him and the dread
of failing to satisfy those expectations have caused him incongruent distress. Subsequently,
this has created a condition for his self-worth. These expectations directly result from traumatic
stress stemming from his experience and loved ones. As a son, brother, or friend, the client
fears he will never be good enough. The client believes he will never be able to obtain approval
from people whose opinions he values.
The client's efforts to satisfy and meet everyone's expectations also push him further away
from his actual self-worth and wholeness. The client has lost confidence in his ability to make
good decisions. The client knows that his current approach to problems is ineffective but fails
to see the case from another perspective or figure out new solutions. Despite the client's
feelings of rejection and criticism, he still has the opportunity to achieve self-actualization. This
is demonstrated by his ability to choose his companions on his own. The fact that he is seeking
therapy reflects his desire to grow and change to live a better life. The client has overcome
difficulties in numerous instances in his life, and a lack of caring relationships has distorted his
capacity to recognize and accept his accomplishment and potential. As a result, he has been
unable to achieve higher levels of self-actualization.
Dispositional/Biological Perspective
We chose Gordon Allport's Psychology of Individual Theory from a dispositional perspective.
He emphasizes the significance of a person's conscious motivation and adaptive behavior,
which explains the client's behavior. The client is aware that his company is involved in stealing
and trafficking goods, which is not a good environment. However, he chose to stay and be
with them, do everything they asked to please them. He even begins smoking under the
influence of his friends. He adapted his company's behavior to fit in, mainly since he relies on
them for emotional and social support as he didn't experience it from his parents.
Functional autonomy, which represents Allport's concept that motivation changes and
behavior are motivated by the present, is also a reasonable explanation for the client's stealing
behavior. The client began stealing to meet his needs because his parents could not meet his
expenses. As time passes, stealing becomes more of a habit for the client than a necessity,
and he began stealing habitually as he became accustomed to it and was unable to stop. His
behavior no longer serves his original purpose of stealing to meet his needs, but it continues
because he is used to it and can't quit.
Learning/Cognitive Theories
In learning theories, we chose Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory because he
emphasizes plasticity as the outstanding characteristic of humans, which means that we
humans have the flexibility to learn a variety of behavior in diverse situations. Like how the
client quickly adapts and learns in his environment, the client started stealing at the age of 12
because his parents could not provide for his needs, but as time went by, his stealing activity
became a habit that he could not quickly get rid of. Furthermore, according to the client, aside
from his parents cannot provide his needs, they also cannot provide the intimacy and the
attention that a teen needs to feel. That leads the client to find those comforts in other people.
He found a company a bad company in precise which leads the client to be the worst version
of himself, to the extent that he keeps stealing just to him the standard of his fellow friends.
Moreover, according to Bandura, people have the power and the capacity to regulate their
lives. We humans can transform transitory events into relatively consistent ways of evaluating
and regulating our social and cultural environment. Without this capacity, people would merely
react to sensory experiences. They would lack the capacity to anticipate events, create new
ideas, or use internal standards to evaluate present experiences, which is what the client is
experiencing.