Human Behavior (Psychopathology) Human Behavior

Human Behavior (psychopathology)

Human Behavior Theory

New Theory: Modified, Modernized Gestalt Theory

One of the challenges of modern theories of psychopathology is to take what neuroscientists have learned about the functioning and chemical balance (and imbalances) of the human brain, and to integrate this theory into the personalized therapeutic process. Although a patient's treatment may benefit from drug therapy, most research indicates that patients show the greatest improvement when therapy and drug treatment are combined. A therapist must address a patient's underlying physical issues and help patients function better in the world with more effective coping and cognitive strategies. Thus, an effective theory of human psychopathology must not view the human being merely as a psyche detached from a physiological and genetic history, like Freud, but the therapist still has a responsibility to deal with the emotional needs of the patient. The therapist must still communicate with the patient as a person, not merely as a collection of cells, or a chemistry set.

Gestalt theory is holistic. "As holists, Gestalt therapists consider the body / mind a unity," and view "the physical dimensions of the individual with the same avid interest...[as] emotional, spiritual, and cognitive dimensions" of personality (Latner, 1992). At the time when the theory was first advanced, body therapy was seen in terms of the body's cycles of wakefulness and rest, encouraging a patient to make use of more positive ways of using the body and to help both patients and therapists better respond to the body's natural needs. But in modern therapy, treating the body has been expanded to include methods of drug treatment. Using Gestalt's theories with the knowledge gained from medical science is the best way to treat the patient in an effective manner.

In addition to treating the body and the ailment the patient is suffering, whether schizophrenia or depression, the patient's own experience of his or her current state of emotion at the present point in time must be acknowledged and dealt with by the therapist. "Gestalt therapists work with a theory of psychopathology based...contact boundary disturbances" that cause negative and positive behaviors, and in some cases mental disturbances (Latner, 1992). A patient's frustration over transgressed boundaries may be the result of past history, may be the result of genetics or physiology, or may be the result of a combination of all of these influences.

A person with a predisposition to depression or bipolar disorder, for example, may be triggered to have an episode by a stressful life event, like going away to college, if the stress upsets his or her homeostasis in a negative fashion. Character or personality or even a genetic predisposition to have certain ailments is thus not a static thing for Gestalt therapists, rather it is a present moment in time, a state of being depending on one's emotional, physical, and social state. All of these elements may need to be altered to bring about a positive shift in the person's life and to bring a patient back to a state of holistic happiness and homeostasis.

Case Study

Modified Gestalt theory would support the idea that Chris has a strong genetic predisposition for developing schizophrenia, given his brother's illness. He was raised in an unstable home environment, because of his father's alcoholism that may have exacerbated the young Chris' sense of constant stress and his difficulty to perceive the world in a hostile, non-threatening fashion. Chris is rational at times, other times he is paranoid, and goes through various degrees of awareness about his state of rationality (hence the usefulness of the Gestalt stress on the 'present point in time' to describe sanity). A resumption of medication may be necessary, although this may not be necessary for throughout the duration of Chris' life.

Chris has been disturbed by a shift in the relationship of his marriage. His wife wishes to have another child and he has just unexpectedly re-encountered a threatening individual from his past. Psychotic episodes can be trigged by negative life events, and Christ perceives his wife's request as a negative stress. He has also suffered a mild physical trauma to his ankle which disturbs his state of physical homeostasis. The fact that his authoritarian role models at home who did not present him with a good example of coping with stress may explain why his paranoia manifests itself against doctors. His sense of physical vulnerability, hostility, and sexual desire all conspire to motivate him to express his vulnerability to having his physical and emotional barriers crossed through suspicion, violence, and sexual 'acting out.'