Adlerian Theory In The Movie Antwone Fisher

In the movie “Antwone Fisher” it’s clear that Antwone presents with several overlapping disorders, Post-traumatic Disorder, generalized anxiety disorders and depression. He suffered psychological, verbal, physical and sexual abuse early in his childhood. Deprived of several psychological developmental stages, trust vs mistrust (oral), autonomy vs shame and doubt (anal), initiative vs guilt (phallic), industry vs inferiority (latency), intimacy vs isolation (genital), as a young child was the cause of his neurodevelopmental disorders. Throughout his childhood Antwone adopted a vast number of defense mechanisms ego defense mechanisms to cope with his disorders specifically anxiety disorder. Several therapies are used to assist is in recover person-centered

To begin conceptualizing Antwone’s feelings through an Adlerian lens, a counselor might try to spot inferiority feelings within the client. These feelings are always present and ultimately act as a motivating force behind an individual’s outward behavior. One could argue that Antwone’s inferiorities stem from the abuse he suffered at such a young age, which halted the average development most humans encounter. In order for an individual to overcome these inferiorities, they begin to act in compensative behaviors. Since Antwone’s traumas began in infancy, he never had any kind of stable environment and the one in which he was finally placed (the Tate’s) caused him to quickly feel inferior. Antwone may have ultimately developed an inferiority complex because he was never able to compensate his inferiority feelings as an infant. The inferiority complex that Antwone developed has prevented him from being able to cope with the demands of life –enabling him to use violence as a way to forget.

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

Alfred Adler was born in 1870 in Austria and developed his own theory on Individual Psychology in 1912. Adler’s theory is closely related to Humanistic Psychology. Influenced by Freud, Smuts and Vaihinger, Adler based his theory on the client’s ability to live as a fully functioning adult in society. Adler’s holistic theory views each person as unified. Adler discussed birth order personality traits. Adler’s theory also discussed the roles therapists should take and the techniques that should be used in Individual Psychology therapy sessions.

Based on a true story, the movie Antwone Fisher starts by going through his adulthood suffering from childhood trauma. Antwone Fisher was born in Cleveland Ohio. From the day he was born he was unwanted. He was born in a prison institution, to a single mother. His father was killed by another girlfriend just two months before his birth. His mother showed little to no interest in him, and searches for foster homes for him to live in. He is sent to live with Mrs. Tate family in Glenville, Ohio, and that’s where the nightmare of an upbringing begins filled with constant abuse. Antwone Fisher in my point of view points out realization to the whole adulthood how childhood plays a big role towards the older you. Throughout the essay I will explain why I believe Antwone Fisher is Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dyslexia, and childhood trauma through step to-step process of Antwone Fisher abused as a child, sexual, physical, and emotional rollercoaster.

Antwone wasunaware of racism from the earlier parts of his childhood. When Antwone thought of white people he identified them with doctors, social service workers and nurses. When Ms. Pickett received a new foster son named Keith, Antwone did not know how to respond and he began second guessing himself. Antwone at some point began to notice that Keith was beginning to get better treatment then the other kids and he knew it was because of the color of his skin and texture of his hair. Antwone began to realize that having lighter skin made Keith get better treatment. Thus, Antwone began associating light skin with good treatment. When Mrs. Pickett’s biological daughter Lizzie called Antwone “chocolate” it caused him to feel like being dark skin was a disgrace and from that moment on Antwone began to hate dark skin (Fisher

Adlerian theory, also known as individual psychology, was developed by Alfred Adler in the twentieth century (Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). He had been conceptualizing and finalizing his theory until about 1931 (Dunn, 1971). This was approximately around the same time Freud was working and becoming popular (Dunn, 1971). Adler is known as the father of the humanistic movement and created his theory in resistance to psychoanalysis and Freudian thinking (Dunn, 1971). Individual psychology asserts that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Dunn, 1971). More specifically, people cannot be understood without understanding them in a social context (Dunn, 1971; Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). Further, behavior cannot be understood in fragments, but needs to be understood in context of the whole person (who is understood within their social

Adlerian psychotherapists often ask their clients about early recollections. What are the assumptions of this technique and how does it facilitate the therapeutic process?

The role of a group leader using Adlerian theory or reality theory have several commonalities between them. It is suggested that group leaders use humor and model appropriate behavior for their group members as well as encouraging confrontation as a means for personal growth (Gladding, 2016, pp. 333-334, 338). Additionally, both theories recommend group leaders having a high level of differentiation of self (pp. 334, 338). In Adlerian theory “the insight phase involves helping individuals understand why they made the choices they did in the past” (p. 338); whereas, in reality theory leaders “must assist group members in understanding the scope of the group process and the need to apply what they have learned in the group to their own daily lives” (p. 334). Furthermore, “effective [Adlerian] leaders use group dynamics to help groups help themselves” (p. 338) while reality theory stresses “fostering the process of self-evaluation in their group members” (p. 334).

Most of society thinks that a mentally healthy person is a person with a sound sense of self and someone who functions on a daily basis within the community without problems of any signs of a mental illness. For Adler, psychological health is determined by the level of social contribution beneficial to the greater community, to the degree, that one integrates and furthers the social context, thus the measurement of his or her mental health. Named after Alfred Adler, Adlerian theory primarily emphasizes concepts pertaining to inferiority and superiority, styles of life, family constellation and birth order, and

Lillian’s case can be very well handle using the Adlerian theory. Alfred Adler proposed that all behaviors are teleological, people are motivated by social interest, by striving toward life goals, by inferiority and superiority as well as by dealing with life tasks. Therefore, according to this approach, scrutinizing Lillian’s social interest and inferiority complex can suggest how she developed her specific lifestyle and help explore “general dissatisfaction with her life,” as she reported. Additionally, Adlerians believe that humans have a capacity to interpret, influence and create events. Putting this in practice, Lillian is also capable for creating her own life events and helping her become conscious of that can lead to higher self-worth and a sense of power to control her life.

The movie Antwone Fisher (2002) illustrates the main character as a 24-year-old African American male from Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Fisher is physically in good condition yet he seems mentally and emotionally troubled. He is often distant amongst his peers, quick-tempered, violent and defensive. He is a six-year Navy officer who has been involved in several fights with his shipmates. Due to frequent violent conflicts, Antwone was demoted to seaman and required to attend three counseling sessions with the U.S. Navy psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Davenport. During the first session, Antwone mentioned that he was “from under a rock” and that he had no family (Antwone Fisher, 2002). It was revealed that Mr. Fisher’s experienced a distressing childhood

Understand, interpret, direct. This statement is an oversimplification of sorts, but defines the essence of Adlerian psychotherapy. From this minimal overview of Adlerian theory, we can begin to elaborate and explore the intricacies of individual psychology. Adlerians are concerned with understanding the unique and private beliefs and strategies of the individual (private logic and mistaken notions) that we create in childhood, and which serve as a reference for attitudes, private views of self, others and the world, and behavior (lifestyle). Therapeutic work with clients involves short-term and intensive work to increase social interest, to encourage a greater sense of responsibility for behavior, and to support behavioral change.

In 1902, Alfred Adler was invited by Freud to become his group to discuss new ideas in psychology after seeing him publicly defend some of his own ideas. Adler was an active member as well as vocal using this group as a forum to develop and debate his emerging ideas of the human condition (Fall, Holden, & Marquis, 2004). Five years later, he developed his first theoretical work entitled, Organic Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation. In the following years, Adler became the president of the International Psycho-analytic Society and began to openly disagree with Freud’s perspectives of

The main difference between the Adlerian approach and the Psychoanalytic approach deals with the stance the therapist takes. In the Psychoanalytic approach , the therapist sits back and gives the client the right to express himself without any resistance. Since transference is a big issue with this approach, and the client can develop projections toward the therapist(Corey, 2013, pg. 481), so it is important for the therapist to remain neutral. Transference interpretation helps our clients by enabling them to see broad patterns of fantasies, interactions and object relations that they had never put together before(Howes, 2010). This approach goes against the philosophy of counseling because the therapist take a back seat, while the client takes the wheel and counseling should be more about an integrative approach. On the other hand the Psychoanalytic approach is based on mutual respect and the importance of goals. Focus is on identifying, exploring and disclosing mistaken goals and faulty assumptions within the persons lifestyle(Corey, 2013, pg. 481), and this approach shows the importance of a therapist who uses more guidance to identify those objectives.