Jungian Analysis Patient Background and Essay

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" The subject describes how his mother also adamantly refused to consent to the use of Novocain or any other anesthetic when he visited the dentist (despite his pleas and pleas from the dentist) because of her distrust of "chemicals."

There is likely a direct connection between the subject's development of a highly abrasive and uncontrollable on-air persona and the degree to which the subject's control over basic aspects of his life was denied to him throughout his formative years (Casement, 1998; Mitchell & Black, 1995). More specifically, the subject was denied the right to express himself and he was often forced to abide by very conservative rules of proper conduct both in the home and also outside the home, such as by his mother's repeated warning that he was her "representative" outside the home. The self that developed seems to reflect both the explicit absorption of certain ideas from his mother and a transmutation of others into adult tendencies that may be largely functions of his failure to acknowledge his anger over them (Andrews, 1989; Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). In that regard, it will be difficult to distinguish neuroses that have been integrated through adaptation from neuroses that reflect the polar opposite mechanics of transmutation (Andrews, 1989; Edinger, 1972), since many of those same behavioral manifestations (such as the overt fear of germs, especially) can arise both ways (Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008).

During his adolescence, the subject violated some of his mother's rules, (such as by using marijuana and various prescription drugs in pill form recreationally), but he did so covertly. He describes himself as "never talking" at home and to "zoning out" in his room to escape interacting with his parents. His father was either absent in any supportive way or highly critical, such as when the subject first expressed his desire to become a radio personality, to which his father responded, "But you don't even know how to talk."

It seems rather straightforward to consider those interactions and family dynamics as having contributed to the adult self of this individual (Schwartz-Salant, 1982). In recent years, he has become much more aware of the extent to which he was oppressed, criticized, and neglected by his parents; however, his current self still reflects his much earlier psychological response. Specifically, it should not be surprising from any Jungian perspective that long before this individual ever became consciously aware of these aspects of his family-of-origin relationships, the child who never stood up for himself in the dentist's office and whose mother was overly controlling in so many intimate ways developed an on-air persona that emphasized talking extemporaneously and mainly about objectionable and offensive topics of humor. Nor should it surprise a Jungian analyst that the subject perpetually oscillates between braggadocio and insecurity or that he admits to deriving great pleasure from instigating and witnessing bitter disputes among his subordinates and that he routinely berates them for relatively minor oversights or mistakes (Bagarozzi & Anderson, 1989; McWilliams, 2004).

Naturally, with respect to these issues, the fundamental goal of Jungian analysis will be to help the patient integrate his early experiences and relationships to reduce their apparent unconscious expression in negative and destructive ways (Jung, 1961; Wyrostok, 1995). In particular, it is anticipated that helping this patient recognize and accept his natural and rightful anger and resentment of some of his parents' treatment will reduce his need to re-enact it unconsciously by taking his parents' role with respect to others while continuing his identification as the inadequate target of excessive criticism by substituting his parents' former attitude toward him in his own psyche, such as through excessive and unrelenting self doubt and fear of failure (Edinger, 1972). Another objective of Jungian therapy would be to address the subject's continuing need to reaffirm his importance by establishing friendships with other famous people, especially those who are even more famous than he is. It would appear that, despite his humor about it on the air, he still denies the role that parental criticism and control played in his psyche; as a result, he has transmuted his emotional on-air humorous treatment of that which caused him tremendous pain earlier in life (Bagarozzi & Anderson, 1989; McWilliams, 2004).

Interestingly, this individual has displayed an unflagging loyalty to one particular on-air coworker despite the fact that a very large segment of his fans consider her tremendously annoying, obnoxious, unfunny, and devoid of any discernable talent of any kind. From a Jungian perspective, it may have been highly significant that the patient once stated in an interview that the way this particular individual laughs always reminded him of the exact same way that his mother used to laugh whenever he said something funny at home. While this obviously exceeds the scope of his therapy, it might be expected that if this patient were to successfully integrate the significance that his failure to achieve his parents' respect or approval as a young man and stop denying his anger at his mother, he might experience a diminution of his loyalty to this particular coworker (Andrews, 1989; Edinger, 1972).

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Anima

Prior to his divorce, the subject regularly referenced his extreme frustration at having never had the opportunity to experiment very much sexually, especially after becoming famous since he was married long before becoming successful in his craft. Throughout the portion of his career when he was married, the subject focused very specifically on the sex lives and sexual exploits of his guests and frequently expressed envy of women because of gender-based roles that require men to make the overture and risk humiliating themselves by rejection. On one hand, the subject does not seem to be in denial about his genuine desires in that regard; on the other hand, it might be clinically significant, especially from a Jungian perspective, that much of his humor is homoerotic-based and that he so frequently adopts a female persona in his pre-written radio bits and in various other forms of media, such as his book cover (Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008). In that regard, it is possible that while he acknowledges his envy of women, he is in denial of his anger at always having been perceived as extremely unattractive prior to his fame. If that is the case, that denial could be the source of his excessive feminine personification (Casement, 1998). Therefore, another goal of Jungian therapy would be to integrate any such anger into his conscious self to reduce its expression in the context of anima (Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 2008).

Introversion

Another significant revelation is that this patient is extremely introverted when he is off the air, preferring virtual social isolation to any activities with others. He does maintain a few close friendships, but throughout the last decade of his first marriage, he often described on the air secreting himself with his computer and his pornographic videos in his locked furnished basement office while his family carried on their lives upstairs and outside. Though extremely vocal and argumentative in his radio persona, in his personal affairs he is extremely reluctant to stick up for himself and is hyper-sensitive about being perceived as being a "trouble-maker" or "nudnik" and will sometimes suffer considerable discomfort instead of requesting special accommodations. On one hand, he describes the appreciation he has for the millions of fans who adore him; on the other hand, he speaks angrily of the burden of fame and of "just wanting to be left alone" by those same fans when they encounter him in person. From the Jungian perspective, his tendency to isolate himself is more clinically significant (Andrews, 1989; Jung, 1961) than his inconsistent reaction to his fame. The objective of therapy in that regard would be to identify the roots of his introversion and then to distinguish the degree to which that reflects transmutation from the degree to which it may simply reflect personal preference (Andrews, 1989; Jung, 1961) for solitary activities (such as playing computer chess) to social activities.

Dreams

The patient describes several different persistent themes in his dreams, all of which are potentially highly significant from the Jungian perspective. First, he often dreams of being "discovered" as a fraud without any talent, such as by being greeted at work by superiors telling him to "Get out of here…you're not Howard Stern!" Second, he often dreams of finding himself in highly embarrassing situations, such as being unable to keep his pants up or being thrust naked out into public view. Finally, on one occasion, he dreamt that he was watching his own funeral and that his parents and family were remarkably composed and unemotional and that his parents were sitting with his ex-wife and her new husband while his current wife was absent because she was attending a movie premier "without me, as usual."

Naturally, all of these dreams are significant from a Jungian perspective (Jung, 1961). The first theme of being discovered as an untalented fraud obviously suggests a connection to his experiences being chastised and harshly….....

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