Psychological Assessment Report for Equus

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This morning, please complete your psychological assessments for your "patient":

Use the article handouts and videos we covered in this unit to help you diagnose your character's problem. Use the text Equus specifically as a record for your report (use textual evidence!) You can draw on Freud (see blog posts below), Jung, Maslow, Fromm, Skinner, Pavlov, Laing, Cyrulnik, Rowe, Janet, Watson, etc. to help support your findings.

A psychological assessment should include the following (you may follow this standard template if you'd like...):
INTRODUCTION: State the name, age (or approx. age), marital status, sex/gender, occupation, race, nationality, and religion of your patient. You may include whether or not the patient has had previous issues (behavioral, disorders, treatment, etc.). Finally, you should state what the patient's major problem or complaint might be, and why the patient was referred or came to the psychologist (you)!
NOTE: The body can be in any order--the following is just an example:
BODY: Discuss the history of the patient (from infancy to maturity). How did the patient deal with stress, trouble, problems, or other conflicts. You may need to make some of this information up, but I'd like you to use what you have learned in this unit to make appropriate details for your character. Use textual evidence where available.
BODY: Discuss the history of the specific problem--what started it, what happened to change the patient's life, how the patient has changed due to the problem (particularly behaviorally), and how the condition has affected the patient's behavior, or life activities. Again, feel free to speculate this information, but where appropriate, use the text as support for your analysis.
BODY: Discuss the patient's behavior, including appearance, speech patterns, general mood or personality traits. Include how the character thinks. Include any thought or behavioral disturbances such as delusions, defense mechanisms, persecutory delusions (they're out to get me...), or preoccupations of the mind such as thoughts of suicide, phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or anti-social behavior patterns. (See below for some ideas). 
CONCLUSION: Suggest a diagnosis/prognosis for your chosen character. Conclude with suggestions (based on your readings) for the patient's treatment. [examples: pharmacotherapy, psychoanalysis or psychotherapy, hospitalization, psychosocial skills training, community service, out-patient treatment, etc.] Use the information you have learned in this unit and make reference to these psychological theories (including the psychologist that came up with the idea--such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, or Freud's pleasure principle, etc.) where needed to support your conclusions.
What to look for in the text (or in the patient):
Appearance/behavior (some common ideas...is the patient...):

  • cooperative
  • agressive
  • evasive
  • guarded
  • attentive
  • distracted
  • anxious or fearful
  • restless
  • healthy or unhealthy
  • describe the patient's posture
  • describe the condition of clothes, hair, grooming, etc.
  • describe speech patterns: loud, quiet, slurred, rambling, talkative, shy, etc.
HINT: Use dialogue and context clues from the play to suggest what the character mood is--sometimes people say they are angry or sad or happy--but other times they say these things, but act differently...

Thinking and Perception:
  • Overthinking (often hesitant and selective or slow to answer as searching for the right words)
  • Slow thinking (unable to comprehend)
  • Stream of consciousness
  • Loose associations to other subjects/topics, etc.
  • Incoherent speech
  • Use of logical fallacies
  • Preoccupations of ideas/topics or subjects
  • Derailment (easily distracted, or train of thought does not connect)
  • Flight of ideas (multiple explanations, thoughts move abruptly from one topic to another)
  • Neologism: making up new words or phrases
  • Perseveration: repetition of words, phrases, or ideas
  • Tangentiality: when asked a question, the patient address the subject, but does not answer the question directly (for example: Did you sleep well last night? the patient might answer: I slept on the sofa last night...it doesn't directly answer the question)
  • Perceptual disturbances: Patient is suffering from illusions, delusions, sees or hears voices or visions
  • Depersonalization: feelings of self-detachment or disengaging from ones environment
  • Insight: patient is unaware that anything is wrong or denies need for help; or is fully aware of being sick or needing help; patient may blame others for his/her problems/sickness, etc.
  • Social judgment: does the patient understand the likely outcome of his/her situation and how it affects/influences others?

Your psychological assessment will count as your "exam" for the play Equus. When you complete your work, please proofread, then print out. If you missed any of these, look at them today:
Use whatever time we have remaining working on portfolio projects.

HOMEWORK: None. Next unit: Philosophy.

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