Psychoanalytic, behavioral, and biological perspectives on Jane's abusive relationships

¶ … Jane

Psychological (psychoanalytic) perspective

According to Huffman (2009), the purposes of psychology can be defined according to a four-step process. The first basic goal of the discipline is descriptive in nature. The first goal of a psychologist is to describe the behaviors that are occurring, the second goal is to explain them, the third is to predict the likelihood of what behaviors will occur in the future, and the final goal is to change the behaviors to prevent unwanted outcomes and encourage more desirable goals.

In the case of Jane, from a purely descriptive point-of-view from a psychoanalytic perspective, the therapist is confronted with a young woman whose life has almost been entirely defined by negative relationships with men. Her father was alternately abusive and overly compliant, depending on how Jane was able to use her feminine 'wiles' with him. Freud would see Jane's behaviors as the result of an unresolved Electra complex, where a young woman, after being frustrated that she cannot 'possess' her mother because she lacks a penis, views her father as a kind of surrogate, masculine-derived source of phallic power.

This relationship with the father is then transferred to the young woman's relationships with other men (the cause of Jane's pregnancy and unfulfilling marriage). Jane is likely to be the victim of abuse again, unless she can understand the causes of her behavior and find a relationship that does not replicate her relationship with her father. A psychoanalyst would likely use free associative techniques to help Jane get to the real, root cause of her negative relationships with men.

Neuroscience & biology

From a more physiologically-driven perspective, a therapist might see Jane's and her father's behaviors as a result of a chemical imbalance, such as a deficit or excess of certain neurotransmitters, like dopamine or serotonin. The therapist might prescribe Jane an antidepressant or another drug if the therapist feels her mood swings between submissiveness and dominance are the result of a bipolar disorder. Her father's aggression, the therapist might speculate, is the result of a chemical imbalance, and bipolar disorder is often transmitted from generation to generation. Thus, the 'description' of the therapist is a series of rapidly shifting moods, the cause is biological, and the likely future of Jane is more erratic behavior, unless Jane is treated appropriately with a medication that can enable a more normalized response to her environment. Only if Jane is chemically stabilized, this theoretical perspective suggests, can Jane take appropriate actions to remedy the problems in her life.

Reference

Huffman, Karen. (2009). Psychology in action. New York: Wiley & Sons.