Actor Christian Bales Psychological Analysis - Essay Example

Actor Christian Bales Psychological Analysis Actor Christian Bale’s Psychological Analysis Anger can make one feel unpleasant and get in the way of relationships based on how a person reacts to the subjective feelings of anger. When experiencing anger, people tend to panic and feel pain, which usually leads to mental health complications. Sometimes, one may fall into depression due to continually being angry or stressed. Getting angry and dwelling on the subjective feeling can worsen the situation by causing more range. It can become so severe that it affects the healthy functions of the individual. In this case, treatment may be considered. Christian Bale is a famous Hollywood actor, who has had several anger outbursts that have affected his life and reputation. For instance, in 2009, when he was recording one of the scenes in the movies, ‘the terminator salvation, the director of photography happened to walk across the stage. Bale suddenly had an angry outburst at the director, which culminated into insults. The fact that the director even tried to apologize, only got Bale angrier. He later apologized to the director claiming he was unable to discern his role in the scene from reality. In another scenario of anger, Bale was alleged to have insulted mother and sister, as a retaliation for his mother insulting his wife. The two examples reveal that Bale’s anger outbursts present a significant problem that may eventually affect his relationship with family and fans, as well as his career. An analysis of Bale’s unpredictable behavior reveals that his anger problem is not just a natural response to stressful situations, but a consequence of broader interrelated factors that cumulatively result into anger outbursts. The American Psychological Association suggests that anger is cognitive-motivational that may lead to aggressive behaviors and violence. For example, Bale shouted profanities at the top of his voice to his victims in both scenarios. Considering he was being recorded, or he was assaulting his mother and sister, that did not seem to matter at that point in his life. All that mattered was that he was hurting and needed to express his feelings, apparently in an angry outburst. Clearly, his judgment was influenced by anger. However, the broader motivators for Bales aggressive nature can only be understood from a critical psychological assessment of his environment. Other kids at school regularly bullied him due to his ‘funny accent. He experienced several cultural shifts that undoubtedly influenced his social life. At one point, his mother was against him dating his first girlfriend while he was in high school. By integrating these factors, Bale must have experienced anger silently until he became a grown up. All those years of silent anger experiences must have caused serious implications on his psychological health. Also considering that he is now a successful Hollywood actor, he is more likely to experience anger silently to protect his iconic image. The buildup of this subjective and unpleasant emotion potentially caused the sudden angry outbursts on his family as well as the director when they did something irritating to him. The nature of Bale’s anger qualifies it as a health problem that requires treatment. Treatment for Christian Bale’s condition requires a combination of the different anger management techniques for an effective intervention. Considering that his condition is more psychological as understood by his history, psychological approaches to the management of anger applies in his case. The integration of psychological approaches entails combining cognitive therapies with behavioral therapies because both schools have a common rooting in learning theory (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). A third school called the affective therapy can include catering for the emotions and feelings expressed by people as rooted in the experiential school. In treating Bale’s condition, he should be willing to enroll for a cognitive-behavioral affective therapy (CBAT) procedure that has been proven to give positive outcome after treatment. Using the cognitive-behavioral affective therapy in the case of Christian Bale would ensure that all facets motivating the anger are addressed. In this integrated technique, Bale should undergo three stages of anger management and treatment. The first stage is called the preventive stage and involves the patient’s psychological learning about what anger is and the negative consequences of the condition, as well as an assessment of anger regulation. Bale is expected to sign a non-legally abiding behavioral contract at the beginning of the integrated treatment (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). By signing the behavioral contract, Bale agrees to commit himself to reduce anger outbursts. The psychologists provide Bale with a score booklet (pocket size) where Bale should monitor himself and record the number of times he gets angry. Bale is expected to create a graph of anger intensity against time. Bale is then evaluated on whether he fulfilled his agreement. The concept of self-monitoring has been proven to change maladaptive conditions such as anger, through creating self-awareness towards the condition. It would help Bale to come to his senses by realizing he is angry when he gets mad. He should be able to take preventive measures to avoid a chain of anger outburst as he usually does. As a result, he would be able to avoid the harmful consequences of violence, which have so far negatively affected his relationship with his family, as well as his workmates. Self-monitoring could help Bale prevent numerous consequences. The psychologist can integrate preventive measure to yield a useful outcome. For example, the clinician can train Bale on how to react to stressful situations constructively. It is called behavior rehearsal (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). Training involves role playing scenarios that have the potential to induce anger emotion and demonstrating constructive ways of responding to such situations. Bale is expected to learn these new behaviors, as well as actually apply them in real life situations. Since Bale gets more agitated when someone apologizes like in the case of the photography director, the psychologist should train him on how to prevent further irritation. One method of achieving this is teaching him to monitor how he behaves when he is angry and counteracting the destructive behavior. For instance, choosing to lower his voice and composing himself. He can even learn how to walk away from the anger-inducing situation. Should Bale find it hard to apply preventive measures anger scenarios, he should learn how to deal with anger as it sets in. For example, positive self-talk, or a thought stopper could create a definite statement in the mind. It not only helps the patient to divert his thoughts, but also to calm down. The practice of thought stoppers can condition the brain always to calm down every time one gets angry (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). Christian Bale could use this constructively to prevent irritation from occurring. Cognitive reappraisal is another method of intervention, which involves changing the thought pattern that led to the anger scenario. For instance, when Bale landed a chain of insult on the director of photography during the making of the movie, ‘terminator salvation, Bale could have avoided the trouble by reassessing his thoughts. The primary reason he got so infuriated was that the director had interrupted the scene to fix a camera light several times before he was assaulted. Bale could have reversed the thought patter, therefore, shifting his thoughts to the failing camera lights instead of attacking the director. Through learning the application of cognitive reappraisal, Bale will be able to avoid future angry outbursts by reassessing consciously choosing to revert attention of faults to inanimate less emotive subjects such as the camera lamp. It serves to reduce suffering from aggravation caused by retaliating emotive issues irrespective of whether they are remorseful or defending their actions. Sometimes cognitive reappraisals may fail as well. The psychologist can also train Bale the art of distraction in anger management. For example, Bale could learn how to avoid a scenario that could potentially cause him to react aggressively (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). For example, walking away from an anger-provoking scenario may look like a lack of assertiveness, but in the real sense, it is a very brave step in avoiding confrontations. Studies have shown that imagining a strong feeling of relaxation throughout the entire body helps to counter the subjective feelings of anger. It helps one to calm down from fight thus reversing the physiological processes leading to anger. If Bale succeeds in applying the intervention measures effectively, he should learn to use self-affirming or thanking statement to enforce self-control over anger. As seen in many cases, patients who succeed in the response stage suffer silently due to residual feelings of anger (Potegal, Stemmler & Spielberger, 2010). Postvention stage involves engaging the client in a process of residual feeling release. It includes affective procedures of therapy. Bale can participate in meditation process where he can visualize all the feelings of anger that could still be in him. He can be assisted to transfer the anger creatively from within himself into another object or subject by the psychologist. For instance, Bale can reflect on his past and think about scenarios in the past, which aggravated him such as the bullying he encountered in his childhood. He should then write it down in a letter to the person who wronged him, expressing his feelings assertively. In the process, he transfers the residual subjective feelings of anger into the letter. He should write that he has forgiven whoever wronged him in the letter. He can then burn the letter to indicate that he has consciously decided to bury the past. He should then declare that he is ready to live his life peacefully. A commonly applied technique is the open chair technique. The method is used in Gestalt therapy. It involves letting go of resentment where Bale expresses his residual feelings assertively to an imaginary person seated in the empty chair. In conclusion, maladaptive anger can cause severe damage to a person’s health and relationships. In this case, Christian Bale’s life has been adversely affected by his unpredictable anger outbursts. It has ruined the relationship he has with his mother and sister, as well as workmates. It has been seen as a subjective feeling that he uses to feel in control or protect his ego. It is a mental as well as a behavioral condition, which can be eliminated through treatment. By enrolling in the Cognitive-behavioral affective technique, Bale agrees to be responsible and committed for his treatment. He makes a conscious decision to collaborate with his psychologist in order to learn and apply constructive techniques in anger management. He then goes through the training and learns the integrated techniques in CBAT. These methods include preventive, intervention, and post-intervention measures that enhance the efficacy of the CBAT technique as a whole. He learns to become self-conscious of his anger and understands the different health coping procedures that guarantee a positive outcome after the entire training. He learns to let go of his past remorse and resentments through various techniques. For example, the empty chair technique and he are ready to embrace a life of happiness where he can enjoy healthy relationships with his workmates and family. References Potegal, M., Stemmler, G., & Spielberger, C. (2010). International Handbook of anger. New York: Springer. Read More