Psychoanalysis of Sheldon Cooper, a TV Character - Case Study Example

Psychoanalysis of TV Character, Sheldon Cooper Introduction Dr. Sheldon Cooper is a character in CBS TV show Big Bang Theory. Cooper has a personality disorder and finds it hard to interact with other people. Dr. Cooper was born in Texas and was a Child Prodigy in Physics. As a child, he achieved so many things that ordinary children do not achieve. For instance, he gained his PhD in theoretical physics at the age of fourteen. Cooper also had a rough childhood especially because of being picked on by bullies. It is also clear that his mother did not understand him due to his genius status and his inability to interact with children. He had an alcoholic father who did not care and his father died while he was still young. In his adult life, Dr. Cooper works as a professor and researcher in theoretical physics at the Caltech University, together with his friend Hofstadter and Howard. The character of Dr. Cooper is a god one to look at because it holds a number of important factors. To begin with, his psychological disorder is one of the most misunderstood one and people, even those suffering from it, may not seek treatment and those who are in his life are not likely to assist the person get professional help. People with this kind of psychological disorders are regarded as not being sick but as having bad character that nobody wants to relate. Therefore, they are likely to suffer even more as they drift further into the fringes of society. In Dr. Cooper’s case, he is lucky to have a few people who seem to understand him and accept him. He only has his three friends (the other three major characters in the TV show) who are in his life. Without these three people who also seems to be suffering from similar or other serious psychological disorders, he would not have anyone. In the TV world, it is possible for a person with such disorders to have friends. However, if Dr. Cooper were living in the real world, he would be most likely a loner who has no friends and who has no social life. Sheldon Cooper could be suffering from concurrency of psychological disorders. Some of the disorders that he may be suffering from include Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder and Aspergers syndrome. Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder With regard to obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, this is because Dr. Cooper has continuously shown signs of obsessions with order and neatness that is in line with people who have obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. This, according to DuBois (1949) is one of the signs of OCPD. He is so obsessed with order and perfectionism that he arranges his serials in alphabetic order. According to Katherin (2005), perfectionism has a direct correlation with OCPD. He has also told his friend Leonard that he may need to change his arrangement of his cereals based on nutritional content. He also has a particular spot in the house where he sits and he gets overly upset when someone else sits on this spot and insists that he has to sit on that spot. Once, when his friend’s girlfriend insisted on sitting on that spot, he got so upset that he ‘banished’ her from the house. He also has a daily schedule that is religiously strict and any disruption of this daily schedule, which includes waking up at in the morning, preparing his favorite breakfast and then watching Dr. Who will lead to him being highly upset. The other sign of obsessive–compulsive personality disorder in Dr. Cooper is that he is a workaholic. Dr. Cooper goes to the point of overworking himself the whole night even when he is working on a relatively insignificant project such as trying to find a formula to make crumbled eggs without the water that comes from the eggs by selecting the water molecules and separating this from the rest of the eggs. He also gets miserable when things do not go his way even if it is an inconsequential matter such as not getting his favorite burger at the restaurant. Cooper also has a code of dressing that he follows religiously and even has a pair of pajamas for each night and he cannot wear any other pajamas at a particular night. For instance, there was an instance when he had to sleep completely naked because it was Wednesday and his Wednesday pajamas were not clean. He also observes high levels of cleanness and neatness, which he does not like anyone to disrupt. He also has a particle night in a week when he does his laundry and if someone disrupts this, he feels upset. What is even more interesting about Cooper and which may qualify his personality disorder as a Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder is that he is obsessed by following regulations and order. He has a roommate agreement with his friend and roommate Dr. Leonard. He constantly refers to this agreement, which for one Dr. Leonard singed only because he thought was a joke. He revises it every time there is a small change, such as when his roommate has a live in girlfriend. He also has a relationships agreement with his girlfriend Dr. Amy Fowler and he always refers to this agreement whenever necessary to him. He also follows it religiously and sometimes goes out of his way in order to abide with the tenets of these two agreements. Aspergers syndrome Dr. Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory may also be suffering from Aspergers syndrome. With regard to this, it is clear that Cooper has an obsession for pattern and has difficulties with regard to making social contact. He also has problems with using nonverbal communication and has a problem being able to understand irony and sarcasm when used by other people. However, Cooper uses sarcasm a lot of the time. He has a very narrow spectrum of interests, which he devotes to a lot. His interests include working out theoretical physics problems, colleting comic books and other comic artifacts, and playing computer games. He also has physical clumsiness which even though not necessarily, may also be an indication of that he is suffering from Aspergers syndrome. Although these signs may be an indication of other disorders in the autism spectrum, the one thing that secludes Dr. Cooper from the other autism disorders is that his condition has affected his speech and cognitive development (Anderluh et al, 2003). For instance, he is a brilliant physicist right from when he was a child and his speech is also not affected and can communicate normally with other people apart from his lack of understanding of humor, irony and sarcasm. Biological paradigms with regard to Dr. Cooper’s personality disorder The biological paradigm may be useful in explaining Dr. Cooper’s psychological disorders. The fact that Dr. Cooper is a former child prodigy who had advanced intellectual ability right from his childhood may explain that his psychological disorder is connected to his biological development. Especially with regard to Asperger’s syndrome, Dr. Cooper may be having a problem with his brain development right from his childhood. The way to understand his problems can be by looking at his brain and understanding how various parts of his brain have developed right from before birth. People with this kind of disorders usually have a unique brain development that makes them to have brilliant intellectual skills but at the same time makes them have issues with regard to their ability to develop social skills (Rheaume et al, 1995). The brain has many parts each of which is dedicated to a certain function such as intellectual, social and other functions. When one part of the brain id overdeveloped at the expense of the other, this leads to the person being better in one area and very poor in another area of the person’s life. For instance, in the case of Dr. Cooper, his brain may have developed in such a way that his cognitive functions developed much better than the average person but this happened at the expense of the other functions such as the social functions. This kind of brain development in the child must have made Dr. Cooper to have a different and probably difficult childhood. In the TV show, he has often quoted that as a child he had many imaginary friends, which means that his childhood did not interact with many people. In fact, because he was too intelligent and that he preferred to use his time working on advanced projects such as building homemade nuclear reactors, this may mean that the other children could not be able to relate to him because intellectually he was way ahead of them. This, combined with the fact that this disorder makes it harder for the patient to have any social interaction means that his chance of having fronds and being able to relate with the other children was a problem for Dr. Cooper. The other problem that Dr. Cooper may have faced during his childhood is that his parents may could understand him. In fact, it has been established that his mother for a number of times tried to take him to doctors so that he would be given a ‘crazy test” to test if he is crazy. This means that not only did Dr. Cooper not have any social interaction with his peers in his childhood, but that his own family did not give him any support that such a child having such problems may need. His mother was a highly religious woman and his father way a drunkard who did not offer any support. It can be therefore argues that his childhood was difficult. However, considering that Dr. Cooper was always too busy with his projects during his childhood, the lack of friends may not have affected him much, apart from prohibiting him from making any friends which hen led to his current situation as an adult. The biological paradigm can explain the way this person has developed right from childhood to this adulthood (Bridget, 2004). For instance, this is a brain issue, which means that if his brain had a developmental problem right from the time the child was in his mother’s womb, the changes that this will change is low. At the same time, it is clear that his development of the brain made it hard for the child to learn social skills right from the time he was a young child. In this regard, it still makes it harder for the patient to be able to develop social skills hen he is older. People with any disorder in the autism spectrum never get treatment to full recovery because this is not just a psychological disorder but it is in their brains. This meant that they are less likely to recover completely from heir issues. For instance, even if Dr. Cooper was to get psychotherapy, this would only help him to deal with some of the challenges that he has and may be help him develop basic social skills but will not help him to fully recover from his disorder. This is because his problems is as more a biological one than it is a psychological one. Other problems such as depression and agoraphobia can get complete treatment because in most cases, they are not related to the brain chemistry and if there are the brain chemistry associated with them is one that can be easily treated. However, in the case of people with autism disorders, this is different. Strengths of using the biological paradigm on the case of Dr. Cooper The main strength of this paradigm in this case is that the doctor will understand the well. The best way to understand the problem with a patient who has any disorder in the autism spectrum is by understanding their brain development. This is the only way to understand them. This can then lead to a better comprehension of their brain chemistry and this offers the best hope for helping such a patent. Although other dynamics will have to come up and the patient will need behavioral therapy, the core of the problem must be regarded to be a problem of the brain structure and brain chemistry and this must be understood from this angle. In this case, in treating such a patient, it may be necessary to use both behavioral and medication strategies to help the patent. The main disadvantage of using the biological paradigm is that is does not cover everything and the practitioner will need to use other non-biological aspects in order to not only understand but also treat the patient’s disorders. Using this paradigm individually and alone may only be a partial solution. There are a number of treatment modes that doctors can use to treat these disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) CBT can have a high level of efficacy in treating such a patient. This helps the patient to be able to recognize his own deficiency and to start working on improving. This can be effective for Dr. Cooper because it will help him to slowly develop the skills he needs to overcome some of the disorders he has such s his obsessive compulsion to maintain abnormal control of his environment. The doctor can also use this method to help him to gain some social skills. Psychoeducation Some of the biggest challenges that such people suffering from these kinds of disorders are that lack of understanding and support from the society and especially those who are in their lives. A good example in the case of Dr. Cooper is the fact that people who are in his life do not understand him and so end up thinking that is he just a difficult person. For instance, Penny, Dr. Cooper’s roommate’s girlfriend seems to have the biggest problem with regard to understanding Dr. Cooper and only thinks that he is just another person who is ‘full of himself’. Psychoeducation can be useful in this case because it helps not only the patient to understand his own problem but also helps those who are in his or her life to also understand the problem and therefore start giving the patient the support they need in order for them to successfully recover from the problem. Psychoeducation also means that there will be lower chances of the patient relapsing back to his conditions because with the support of the people in his life, he will have a better chance of sustaining any gain that the patient gets from the treatment. Psychodynamic therapy Psychodynamic therapy is also another therapy that the doctor can use in this case. The main benefit of psychodynamics is that it is an overarching mode of treatment that tries to look at all the psychodynamics that come together to affect a patient. This is therefore a comprehensive way of not just understanding and diagnosing a patient but also a way to help the patient in a much practical way. This method doctor can combine this mode with evidence-based treatment in order to make sure that patient gets the best for his treatment. Transactional analysis Transactional analysis involves a number of evidence-based tools that help in it just understanding the patient but also in helping them to overcome their problem using practical ways. The doctor can also use this in the case of Dr. Cooper’s case. The main benefit here is that it is a very dynamic and versatile mode of treatment and the practitioner is able to use a range of tools that are fit for a particular case. One of the biggest issues in psychological therapy and treatment is that sometimes practitioners need to use more than one mode of treatment to treat a patient. This is especially so in the situation where the patient is suffering from a number of psychological disorders. Dr. Cooper who is suffering from a spectrum of disorders and therefore this may be useful for him. In this regard, Transactional analysis will be the best way to asses and treat Dr. Cooper. However, the biggest problem that will come up will be to convince him to accept the treatment. Dr. Cooper is a very proud person and he does not see his disorders as a problem but rather things that the problem is with other people. In a number of occasions, he has referred to the fact that everybody else is too dumb. He even considers himself as more evolved than the rest of the human race and in his opinion, it is the rest of the human race that has a problem and not him. In this regard, he is less likely to seek treatment and even when suggested to him, he would most likely dismiss it. However, on various times, he has expressed his softer side, admitted to his roommate’s girlfriend Penny that he has a problem with interacting with people, and even commended her for her social skills. This may be a sign that Cooper has started recognizing that he has a problem with regard to interacting with people. The support and affection he has received from his small number of friends has made his to start being aware of his deficiency for social skills and this would be a good position to start with regard to pushing him towards going to therapy. The goals of the treatment would to help Dr. Cooper to overcome his problems and to give him a chance to develop some social skills. The other goal would be to help him overcome his obsession with order and therefore help him to overcome his compulsive obsessive disorder. Conclusion It is clear that Dr. Cooper is suffering from at least a range of psychological disorders. It is also obvious that Cooper is not likely to seek for treatment. However, the doctor can help him by putting him on therapy. Due to the complicated nature of his disorders, the best way to help him would be to use the transactional analysis as the mode of treatment for Dr. Cooper. References Anderluh, M. e. (2003). Childhood obsessive–compulsive personality traits in adult women with eating disorders: defining a broader eating disorder phenotype. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 2 , pp. 242–47. Bridget, F. (2004). Prevalence, Correlates, and Disability of Personality Disorders in the United States. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65, 7 , pp. 948–58. DuBois, F. (1949). Compulsion neurosis with cachexia: Anorexia Nervosa. . American Journal of Psychiatry, 106 , pp. 107–115. Katherin, H. (2005). The Relation among Perfectionism, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Individuals with Eating Disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders 3, 4 , pp. 371–374. Rheaume, J. e. (1995). Perfectionism, responsibility and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Behavioral Therapy, 33, 7 , pp. 785–794. Read More