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After reading the case study, I feel bad for Karen and I wanted to help her.

According to the case study and the only information I know about Karen,

I choose to use classical psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud to

proceed with her.This theorys view on human nature is quite simple yet difficult to

understand. He said that it is fatalistic, and that we are under the control

of biological and instinctual drives. Karen as a woman has the female and

mother instinct. She chose to make her major career as a housewife and

mother. She made sure that all her children got enough of care and love

from a mother, until the children are mature enough to take care of

themselves; or in other words, she would take care of them until they arenot dependent on her anymore. She only took up a part time class for a

bachelors degree when her children became adolescents.

Besides that, it is human instinct to like beautiful things and Karen is

no exception. From her appearance and actions, we can see that she has

showed signs of low self-esteem but she is covering it up. She avoids eye

contact when talking and she speaks rapidly. This shows that she is

uncomfortable communicating with people she does not know well. In

addition, she is overweight and she also dresses meticulously, giving great

attention to details on her outfits. She is very careful and precise not to

wear accessories and clothing that will make her look even fatter and

older. In the presenting problem, she mentioned that she feels some

panic over reaching the age of 39. But on the other hand she constantly

fidgets with her clothes showed that she is very uncomfortable wearing it

or maybe she hates it; but she still wear it somehow to compensate the

fact that she is an overweight person.

Life instinct is the motivation to gain pleasure and avoid pain. Most

probably she uses a lot of food to gain pleasure and to avoid pain such as

the dissatisfaction of her uneventful and predictable life. The weight

problem that she is having now is concerned with death instinct. It is an

aggressive energy, with an unconscious wish to hurt self and others. By

always eating to gain pleasure, she now has weight problem. She is

hurting herself by eating too much and putting her health into risk.

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The structure of personality of this theory is divided into three parts

which is id, ego, and superego. According to this theory, energy is

distributed between all these three. Id is the primary source of psychic

energy. It is present at birth and is part of the conscious. Now that shehad communicated with mates at her university, she became aware that

how she has limited herself, how she has fostered her familys dependence

on her, and how frightened she is of branching out from her roles as

mother and wife. She had sacrificed a lot for her family but now she is

getting tired of it and wants to go to work. Back when she was a child,

she was always overwhelmed by her parents; she has to work really hard in

hope to please them. The family demonstrated little affection in manyways. This in turn made Karen to turn her affection to her siblings by

taking on the role of caring for her younger brother and sisters. In the

one incident that occurred to her when she was six years old had haunted

her and changed her personality. After that incident, she carried the

feelings of guilt into her adolescence and that she repressed her own

emerging sexuality. In addition, Karen always wanted the approval of her

peers but then she was not willing to compromise her morals for fear of

consequences.

Furthermore, Karen also is quite an ego person. It is the second

system to develop and it functions primarily in the conscious and in the

preconscious mind. It also controls the wishes and desires of a person.

She realized she has lived a very structured and disciplined life and that

she has functioned largely by taking care of the home and the needs of

her children and her husband. Somehow, to a certain degree she is no

longer contented to do those anymore. Other than that she wanted to be

more involved professionally and by that she meant she wants to get a job

and not doing full time housewife anymore. But at the same time she is

having fear that she might not success in professional world and the

consequences is losing her family. From the history of presenting

problem, she said that she has problems with her children especially her

daughter Jane. She feel that all her children at the adolescent stage are

now finding more of their satisfactions outside of the family and the home

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and are spending increasing time with their friends. Karen noticed the

changes and is concerned about losing them. In short she feels very much

unappreciated by her children.

Superego is in short your parents in your head. Karens father is afundamentalist minster, a very distant, authoritarian and rigid father; while

her mother is a housewife. She at times is very critical but at other times

she was very supportive too. The relationship with her father is the kind

that to never question anything, and to adhere to his rules and standards.

Whenever she wanted to have any kind of fun she encountered her

fathers disapproval and outright scorn. She has been taking care of her

other siblings since she was young in order to please and win the approvalof her parents. Maybe this is the reason she had took up the role of a

housewife and taking care of her family nicely. Moreover, she was not

allowed to date until she completed high school; at the age of 19 she

married the first person she had dated. Probably this is the reason she

feels unappreciated by her children and is losing them because they

spending more time with their friends than at home.

Karen also repeats her problems until they are resolved and she will

keep repeating it until she is satisfied with the outcome. This is known as

incomplete resolution leads to repetition compulsion. The only way to

break the cycle is to become conscious of the cycle, understand what she

really wants and go through the process of grieving and letting to. For

example, she should really ask herself what does she actually want and

discuss with her family. Due to her past experiences, she had difficulty in

making and keeping friends and is not allowed to date. This results in

always spend time at home with her family. Therefore she expects her

children to do the same as she did. So when her three children have been

going out a lot and spending a lot of time outside, she feels sad and

unwanted by her children.

Karen also presents anxiety and for two years she has been troubled

with a range of psychosomatic complaints, including sleep disturbances,

anxiety, dizziness, heart palpitations, and headaches. Besides that she also

cries easily over trivial matters, often feels depressed, and has a weight

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problem. This anxiety may be caused by the tension that arises out of

conflict between id, ego, and superego. One type of this anxiety is

neurotic anxiety. It means that the fear of doing something wrong and

get punished. In this case, Karen is worried that if she goes out to theprofessional world, and end up failing, she will get the punishment for

acting selfishly and losing her family.

The most important part of the therapeutic goals is to make the

unconscious conscious which means to help the client bring into the

conscious the unconscious. The thing is to let Karen know that whatever is

in her unconscious and whatever she really wants should be brought up

and discuss it with her family members. She always get overwhelmed byher life as a housewife and with the reaching age of 39, she is wondering

where the years have gone. She was unaware her life passing so quickly

because it is kind of like a routine and boring.

Other than that, another goal of psychoanalytical theory is to make

her ego stronger so that her behavior is based on reality instead of

instinctual cravings or irrational guilt. Karen should be aware that all her

worries and fears of getting punished are not necessary and that it is her

thinking too much. This is the part where counselor helps the client work

through a developmental stage that was not resolved or where the client

became fixated. To do this, we have to go back to her childhood or her

psychosocial history. Besides that the therapeutic goal is to help the client

to adjust to the demands of work, intimacy, and society. With the heavy

duties of house works, Karen never had time to rest nor had any time for

entertainment to let her relaxed.

I as her therapist have functions and roles to accomplish. I will try

to foster a transference relationship so that Karen will make projections

unto me. Karen will project her unfinished business onto me for example

her rigid and authoritarian father. This will give her a sense of safety and

acceptance. Karen can freely explore difficult material and experiences

from their past, gaining insight and working through unresolved issues. I

will pay attention to Karens resistances such as places where the client got

stuck; maybe during her childhood. All these are interpretations from a

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counselor to help the client make connections such as letting her to gain

insight into past and present events.

Moreover countertransference also helped in this situation. This is

because the therapists own feelings are triggered towards clients. It canhelp me to understand the world of Karens, for instance how other people

must have viewed her; what was her feeling at that moment, and how she

overcomes it.

I expect my client to be the same as what it has been written on the

case study and I expect her to change better gradually for every

counseling session. I also expect her to be honest at all times and be

responsible of her own self. I got a feeling that the relationship betweenme and my client will be close, because I will use the role of

countertransference in this therapeutic session. Both of us will be

emotionally connected since I had understood her world, her feelings, and

her perception. Lastly, I expect all the future sessions with Karen will work

well, and expect Karen to be mentally healthy; able to handle her problems

and lead a happy life in the future after she finishes her counseling

sessions.