Antwone Fisher
The focus of this paper is on psychodynamic (intergenerational and psychoanalytic) family therapies; and how these concepts apply to helping the protagonist in the major motion picture Antwone Fisher overcome traumatic incidents he experienced during his childhood and adolescent years, as well as help him to manage his current anger issues. Psychodynamics, in its broadest sense, is an approach to the study of human behavior that emphasizes the study and use of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings and emotions; how they relate to early childhood experiences . . . (Sher & Sher, 2015). Intergenerational and psychoanalytic family therapies can be described as an approach to the study of how a
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Sexual and aggressive drives are at the heart of human nature
Every human being wants to be appreciated
Symptoms are attempted to cope with unconscious conflicts over sex and aggression
Internalized objects become projected onto important others; we then evoke responses from them that fit that object, they comply, and we react to the projection rather than the real person
Early experiences affect later relationships
Internalized objects affect inner experience and outer relationships
In addition, Kerr (2000) points out that a core assumption is that an emotional system that evolved over several billion years governs human relationship systems.
Thus, intergenerational and psychoanalytic family therapies “share several key concepts and practices: examining a client’s early relationships to understand present functioning; tracing transgenerational and extended family dynamics to understand a client’s complaints; promoting insight into extended family dynamics to facilitate change; and identifying and altering destructive beliefs and patterns of behavior that were
The family system is founded on the notions that for change to occur in the life of an individual, the therapist must understand and work with the family as a whole. In working with the family, the therapist can understand how the individual in counseling functions within his family system and how the client’s behaviors connect to other people in the family. This theory also holds the perception that symptoms are a set of family habits and patterns passed down by generation and not a result of a psychological problem or an inability to change (Corey, 2017). Furthermore, the family system theory holds the idea that when a change occurs everyone in the unit is affected by the change.
3. In the latter phases of therapy, adult clients are coached in differentiating themselves from their family of origin, the assumption being that gains in differentiation will automatically flow over into decreased anxiety and greater self-responsibility within the nuclear family system (Penny, 1999 p. 101).
Antwone Fisher in my opinion is probably the most impactful movie I have ever seen. People may say, “ What a good movie” but I say “what a good man”.
Psychotherapy.net. (Producer). (2012). Bowenian family therapy [Motion picture]. [With Philip Guerin, MD]. United States: Psychotherapy.n
Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).
Psychodynamic therapy has been around for ages, and has been very beneficial for clients who are suffering from an array of difficulties in life. This form of therapy has the client focus on the past and understand how it has positively or negatively affected his/her behavior and outlook on life. There are many advantages and disadvantages to taking this historical approach when working with families.
In conceptualising the development of the family system, Bowenian therapists are past-focused. They believe that emotional fusion that is passed down from one generation to the next is the cause of psychological problems (Nichols, 2010, pp 119-122). Normal family development according to Solution Focused therapist produces families with flexible structures, clear boundaries and well-organised hierarchies. This is quite similar to Bowenian’s concept of normal family development. Differentiated individuals after all need to have clear boundaries. Similarly, flexible structures and well-organised hierarchies do promote low anxiety and therefore generate positive emotional contact between family members. The difference is that instead of being past-focused, Solution Focused therapy assiduously avoids the past and focuses their clients as much as possible on the present and future. (Nichols, 2010, pp 321).
To begin, the psychodynamic theory is based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. The psychodynamic theory includes the idea that people have defense mechanisms. Psychological defense mechanisms are ways of dealing with anxiety through unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality, such as denial and repression. In addition, sexual impulses play a large role in the psychodynamic theory. According to Freud, part of personality is outside of awareness, unconscious. The unconscious has difficulty retrieving material and is well below the surface of awareness. Also, the past is important in the psychodynamic theory. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this theory. For instance, the advantages are: psychodynamic theory recognizes the importance of childhood; other theorists after Freud have revised the approach to be less controversial, and this theory has been
Antwone "Fish" Fisher is a complex individual who has been through a great deal of psychological and sociological conflicts in his short life. His mother was arrested and then abandons him, he was abused physically and emotional, and then lived on the streets. In short, nearly everything bad that can possible happen to a person has happened to young Antwone Fisher before he has reached adulthood. In his autobiographical book Finding Fish (2001), Fisher explains how the torment that he experienced in his youth shaped the man that he would become in adulthood. Although this story tells about one young man's difficulties in life and how he had to overcome obstacles in order to be a functional and positive member of society, it is really a story about the larger human condition and how every person becomes affected by their experiences.
Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy employed to assist members of a family in improving communication systems, conflict resolution, and to help the family to deal with certain problems that manifest in the behavior of members. In most cases, deviance in a family member is an indication of underlying family dysfunctions. This paper looks the counselling procedure that can be applied to help the Kline family solve their problems. It answers certain questions including those of the expected challenges during therapy and ways of dealing with the challenges.
My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it
The movie Antwone Fisher represents what can be characterized as the quintessential approach, or deconstruction of the psychodynamic theory. Specifically, the movie outlines the main character’s personality pathology. It goes on examines various aspects of the
Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, stated the first stage of human development is one of the most important. Because an infant is entirely dependent upon his or her caregivers, the quality of care plays an important role in the shaping of the child’s personality. In the case of Antowne Fisher, with his unfortunate circumstance of the death of his father and the incarceration of his mother, he lacked the care and love only parents can provide. However, once he entered the foster care system, Mrs. Nellie Strange, a savior of sort and his foster mother, became the tool in his development through the first stage of Erickson’s stages of development.
The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.
Contextual family therapy model is a transgenerational mode that is based on the assumption that a family system behavioral patterns are mostly developed from one generation to another generation. This particular model is more of a distinct type model that is considered to be closely compared or associated to the psychoanalytic family model (Gehart, 2014). The major assumption for change in the contextual approach model, is to help all in the family system to establish a greater balance in each relationship through the intervention of fairness, trust, loyalty, and mutual support. These interventions is considered to be the focal point for the contextual family therapy model (Gangamma, Bartle-Haring &