Diagnostic Assessment of George Costanza - Term Paper Example

Running Head: DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT Diagnostic Assessment s Diagnostic Assessment: George Costanza Diagnostic assessment endows investigators or researchers to make findings through the use of technical procedure or paraphernalia counting on the condition of the specific condition. Such discoveries need activities to either undergo therapy or cure the condition. For this paper, the client I selected, George Costanza, displayed to me numerous behaviors and distinctiveness that I can use to interpret and reflect on his character personality. The background of human character has long been a concern of Philosophers, Psychologists, and thinkers alike who have been, and still extend to date, mystified by the broad variety of traits and behaviors that distinguish individual beings. Indeed, if there is one reliable verdict that has appeared from the present study on personality characteristics with which every personologist acquiesces, it is that nature of a person is just as varied and convoluted as the length of the day. Karen Horney’s discovery of psychoanalysis led her on an intense and relentless examination of her own inner life (Ford & Urban, 1963). She kept “Ego” notebooks, with notes on a wide range of subjects that affected her inner life. In 1920, she became a founding member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Eventually, extramarital affairs and unconventional behavior caused her much strife with the social establishment in general, and with Freud in particular. She argued with Freud and with her own analyst on basic issues regarding Freud’s theory of femininity (Ford & Urban, 1963). Specifically, she believed that the male-dominated world of psychiatry was not properly serving female patients. She challenged much of Freudian orthodoxy, for example, the idea of masculinity as “active” and femininity as “passive,” and eventually the rift with Freud sent her in new directions. Karen Horney formed her own institute, the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, with several other notable analysts, and she published several books during this period. For political reasons, those books—“Are You Considering Psychoanalysis?”, “Our Inner Conflicts, and Neurosis and Human Growth”—went unrecognized by the psychoanalytic establishment at the time because of Horney’s criticisms of Freudian orthodoxy, but they remain important works which offer a differing view of Freudian analysis (Horney, 1942). The latter two books marked a departure for Horney in that they represented a distillation of her observations over the years into general principles. She talks of security as a motivator for human behavior and of a “basic anxiety” that is the cause of “neurotic trends.” She talks of four “solutions” to conflict and of the negative consequences of rigid, neurotic adherence to the solutions (Horney, 1942). This paper makes use of the Psychoanalytic Social Theory by Horney which pays close attention to anxiety and neurosis, both of which I accept as factual to George’s assessment to a large degree. Horney suggests that early days and parental unresponsiveness is the major origin of neuroticism in adults. George Costanza exhibits nearly all the anxiety characteristics which classify neurosis and are utilized to encounter the anxiety he confronts. To begin, Horney supposes that 1. Personality development is mostly originated on the allowance and pattern of involvement of parents (Horney, 1942); 2. If an individual doesnt have their desires fulfilled in their childhood, this will lead to rudimentary resentment which, in turn, deviates to rudimentary anxiety (Horney, 1942). 3. Neurotic mature individual’s trial to battle disquiet by pleading distinct kinds of neurotic needs (Horney, 1942). With certain limitations, Horney defines neurosis as: “A psychic disturbance brought about by fears and defenses against these fears, and by attempts to find compromise solutions for conflicting tendencies. For practical reasons, it is advisable to call the disturbance a neurosis only if it deviates from the pattern common to the particular culture” (Ford & Urban, 1963). The attainment of common behavioral characteristics is not overtly devised by Horney. Nevertheless, from literature presented by Horney, one can deduce 2 primary intentions which are features of both normal people and neurotic people (Ford & Urban, 1963). These are: the search for satisfaction, and the search for safety. “Some inherent values of these postulations are: • Uniqueness vs. Universality • Physiological vs. purposive motivation • Conscious vs. lifeless motivation” (Ford & Urban, 1963). The primary fear that arises from neurosis is the feeling of vulnerability and severance in a potentially unsociable world. It is thought that there is a wide arrangement of adverse features in the surroundings that can influence the basic anxiety in the child. Among these environmental factors are authority, lack of interest, unpredictable mannerism, lack of respect for the childs needs regarding his, negative approach, extreme possessiveness, having to take sides in parental disparities, and a hostile environment (Ford & Urban, 1963). George Costanzas childhood was a usual but ideal environment for a neurotic adult to have been growing. His parents did not have any proximity among them and constantly fought and nagged with each other. Because of this, George simply evolved anxiety and has to adapt to a style to defend him from sentiments of segregation. Horneys neurotic desires are conspicuous in Georges activities and ideas, which certainly were the major way I would consider Georges issues. Demonstrating these neurotic desires, as asserted by Horney, would comprise George as an individual suffering from neurosis. George values these desires to fight back on his own and make him seem accepted in the society. I would actually suggest more therapy because George is apparently still neurotic and his neurotic desires are hindering with, what could be, a joyous, persuading life (Irwin, 1999). Typically when talking about a character of an individual we discuss what makes that human different from others and possibly even special. This facet of character is called individual disparity. For some ideas, it is the focal matter. These ideas often use up substantial vigilance on things like kinds and traits and checks with which we can classify or contrast people: Some persons are anxious, other ones are not. In our case George is neurotic. In one of the instances discussed with George, he noted that when he informed his mother about his engagement she inquired to talk to his fiancé, Susan, and directly said “May I inquire why?” Georges dad, furthermore uncooperative, inquired George if his fiancée was a man or a woman. This is just one demonstration of how George doesnt seem to develop any love or affection for his parents. Their bickering, nagging and constant arguments gave George a sense of insecurity and not being wanted which shattered his entire childhood (Irwin, 1999). Generally, I would state that George’ conformed to his anxiety in a compliant manner. He commonly moves on to other relationships. These are deepened because of his longing for acceptance. When George started to develop a relationship with a woman, who his associates said looked like Jerry; he became frightened and smashed up with her because of his friends antics and judgment. Georges compliant character is furthermore exemplified in the position where Jerry and George conclude to a committed relationship with women. George only acclimatized this new mind-set because Jerry proposed it and boosted it. However, they require for development and communal acknowledgement to pursue the convention of a hard-hitting personality. In both modes, neurotic desires are brandished and administered with, through Georges life. Most of us admire Seinfeld and it is easy for us to recall that a lot was going in the wrong direction for George and he concluded that all the decisions that he had ever taken had been incorrect, so to correct them he would simply just decide the other way round in order for things to get right. His principle in life was that if any of his decisions did not work out for him, he would simply decide otherwise in order for things to fall right (Seinfeld, 2008). George is neurotic, selfish, and overridden by his parents. Since the very first season’s episodes of Seinfeld George was shown to be extremely intelligent and this is evident from a point in the series when he depicts a thoughtful concern in the American Civil War and sometimes seen to be a mentor to Jerry, but at the same time we also observe that he is not even capable of reading a ninety pages book at a time. However, we see that George is pretty happy with the way he is in spite of all the weaknesses in his personality. George displays several contradictory attribute in his personality, amidst them miserliness, egotism, untruthfulness, diffidence, and authoritarian are the most evident. Many of these were just the best ones to describe the pattern of his diverse anxiety and neurosis (Horney, 1942). Probably the only love he could find was in the relationship with Elaine and Kramer. That also had elements of hatred. This can be seen when in one episode he is seen fighting with Elaine, and on the other hand in some episodes later he is seen to loving her. George and Kramer generally seem inappropriate for each other but begun working simultaneously in some of the episodes where their relationship is seen to be something to admire. But in some of the episodes, Kramer is seen to be more comfortable with George’s parents than George himself (Doctoroids, 2009). While diagnosing George, he confessed that he despises woman because a female friend of his once defeated him in a game of chess. At another instance he recalls that he anticipated an apology from a very old friend who was undergoing alcohol rehabilitation. However, what he despises is that even though he eventually apologizes for his mistakes sooner or later, he himself never gets an apology. Evident from these instances we can conclude that George craves for power and authority over others, that is yet another symbol of a neurotic behavior (Irwin, 1999). He has affection for pleasing washrooms which are clean and tidy and also for a workplace which has all the latest working amenities. In one of the episodes named "The Revenge", he stops his real-estate job exclusively because he is prohibited to use his bosss personal restroom (Doctoroids, 2009). When employed for the Yankees, he proposed that the toilet doors should be long enough to meet the floor so that people’s legs could not be peeped at and a constant discussion of toilet paper in miscellaneous episodes gives us enough sense of his infatuation. The he is seen to worry constantly about various diseases that he can inflict by using dirty restrooms. For example his stubbornness to not use the restroom on his way to India, asserting that he cannot trust the quality of cleanliness in those restrooms. In one of the episodes namely "The Wife", George gets into problem for urinating in the sluice at a gym but fights back his activity considering it to be correct by saying that it does not matter whichever way is used, as they are all pipes (Doctoroids, 2009). Although the person notices one tendency principally, the other trends are secondary but still in attendance and influence the personality. Furthermore, as a purpose of interior and exterior forces (unfavorable skills) a personality may alter from one main approach to another. Professional life As far as George’s career is concerned, it is highly at stake. He is incapable to stay in any job for very long due to his tendency of committing humiliating mistakes. Often he is seen to be lying and then trying to conceal it just to make things worse. When observed, he was found to be utterly selfish and has the ability to use other people for his own advantage. A good example can be, when he had to address his department for an address on risk management (Seinfeld, 2008). For this he was supposed to read material to prepare him but he wanted to hear it on tape instead keeping in mind he was very lazy. But he could not gain access to the tape as that was only available for people with vision impairment. For this he managed to fail an eye test and thus got hold of the tape. Not only does he brandish his neurotic wants to exploit other ones, he furthermore displays them as need for being recognized in the society and gain respect at his office (Irwin, 1999). In another episode, George is seen to be exploiting other people he was associated with, to scuffle his own apprehensions. George plans to get a big apartment but the seller would only give it to someone who had experience a shipwreck about 50 years ago. The seller hears to all the stories and unfortunately George loses though he makes up overstated lies in alignment to get this apartment (Doctoroids, 2009). This failure becomes add up to his anxiety. Conclusion Mainstream TV comedy is an interesting vocation. Smart viewers are almost always disdainful of it, but the masses are drawn to it. A lot of people think "Everybody Loves Raymond" is dumb and predictable, while conventional wisdom is that its one of the best comedies on TV. Certainly its no "Arrested Development," but "Raymond" may get the last laugh (again) when and if Fox dumps "Arrested Development" shortly after renewing it. That said the appeal for producers in a standard, old-school sitcom is that if it hits big, the sky opens up and rains down money. For all involved. As a writer or producer, you may not get the street cred of something thats slaying discerning fans on Comedy Central, but you also drive a better car and have a bigger nest egg. Its also true that shows like "Raymond" or "Friends" or "Seinfeld" can succeed in the genre without being, by association, of lesser value than something more hip. A neurotic person starts feeling that this state of mind is more real than the actual side of his personality and starts to feel comfortable with the same. Since this trait or behavior is not real, the person fails to meet up with his expectations. As an outcome of this, there is an augment in apprehensions and resentment, and a new divergence between the real self and the neurotic self rises. “In the process the individual becomes alienated from his real self” (Horney, 1942). Whether the therapy is successful is evident from the behavior of the individual. Concurrently there is change in the communally active reactions, in the course of dependable, autonomous, and astute actions. “The therapy of such people is characterized by flexibility and spontaneity and there is an absence of rigidly controlled behavior” (Horney, 1942). The goal of therapy is not to explain all the difficulties that the patient is facing. As perceived life is a nonstop course of growth and development. When the patient recognizes his divergence and their penalties, his apprehensions or nervousness will reduce itself. He will then adapt his behaviors in his every day dealings with others. Additionally, he will enable his development in the direction in which he feels potentially strong and in the direction where he will be able to find solutions to his problems. References Doctoroids. (2009). Seinfeld Scripts. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ Ford, D. H., & Urban, H. B. (1963). Systems of Psychotherapy. New York : John Wiley & Sons. Horney, K. (1942). Self Analysis. . New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Irwin, W. (Ed.). (1999). Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing. Open Court. Seinfeld, J. (2008). Seinlanguage. Bantam . Read More