Reply to the 2 students for discussion board
Candace
Mallory is a 25-year-old woman who called dr. Santos and described mild depressive symptoms. Dr. Santos started with open ended questions and after 10 minutes of Mallory explaining with her romantic life and her job she interrupted herself to apologized for boring Dr. Santos and wasting her time. Dr. Santos insisted she stay and that she was interested. Over the course on the interview, there were a total of four of these episodes. Dr. Santos made eye contact and continually expressed interest.
According to Pomerantz (2014), transference refers to the tendency to form a relationship where clients unconsciously and idealistically expect the psychologist to act like the important people within their lives and pasts. Transference is occurring in this scenario in two possible ways. In the first way her own fears and anxiety may be kicking in because Dr. Santos is interested in Mallory but due to Mallory thinking she is boring Dr. Santos she is saying she is even though she is not. Mallory is thinking she does not deserve help and that her issues are small, and she reflected that onto Dr. Santos without her saying it herself. The second reason is that she could have had someone Mallory looked up to or cared about told her what she was feeling was not important or how someone else has it worse so now Mallory feels like she has no place to bring up how messed up her life is.
Dr. Santos seemed to be truly interested and influenced my judgment because the whole time Mallory was talking she was listening. When Mallory tried to leave because she was boring Dr. Santos told her to sit down and to keep talking.
The five most common defense mechanisms are repression, projection, reaction formation, displacement, and sublimation. Mallory seems to be doing all of these but one that stands out is the reaction formation when she tries to leave even though Dr. Santos is interested in her.
Pomerantz, A.M. (2013). Clinical Psychology: Science, Practice, and Culture, 3rd Edition. [Purdue University Global Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781452285795/
Calyce:
Hello Professor and Classmates,
Based entirely on the interview of Dr.Santos and Mallory, the amount of interruptions made upon herself would say transference Is likely what is going on in Mallory’s expectations of Dr. Santos due to either her mother or father not listening in the past. Transference is when a client builds a relationship with a therapist as if it was someone important and can at times, be altered to prejudgment from what was pertain in the past.
Dr. Santos behavior during the entire session and throughout the four interruptions of Mallory upon herself are what influenced me in believing that Mallory‘s behavior was indeed transference. Throughout the interview and when Mallory stated “she is wasting the doctors time” Dr. Santos ensured her client she that she was there to listen and made appropriate gestures to ensure focus and attention towards Mallery during the interview.
Based off Mallory’s interview she could be transference from either her parents or even her career. However, Mallory is only 25 years old so her transference is likely from her parents and how they treated her behavior and emotions in the past.
The ultimate goal of a psychodynamic psychotherapist is to make the unconscious conscious and allow the client to become aware of their thoughts and feelings. An example of this is Dr. Santos reassurance toward Mallory of her unconscious thoughts that she indeed wants to hear her story and is encouraging her to continue. The Doctor will likely have Mallory write down or work on activities that allow her to become aware of her unconscious thoughts. If Dr. Santos was a humanistic psychotherapist her goal would be to bring Mallory from her ideal self back to her real self and continue her growth as a human. Likely the same approach as a psychodynamic therapist with sight changes.
There are several form of defensive mechanism repression, projection, reaction formation, displacement, and sublimation. Based off Mallory’s reaction towards her self and her psychologist she could easily be facing a repression due to inability to recognize that she continues to interrupt herself throughout the interview no matter how many times Dr. Santos insures she is not bothered by her presents. Repression is when the ego repress the conscious awareness of impulses and Id/superego conflict (Pomerantz, 2014). While displacement may seem as if Mallory is going through such defensive mechanisms. Mallory is aware enough to recognize she is depressed and in search of help to feel better.
Calyce Perdue
Reference
Pomerantz, A. (2014). Clinical Psychology, 2nd Edition. Thousand