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Clinical Psychology –Diagnosing Psychotic Disorders-1
Diagnosing Psychotic Disorder assignment
Subject
Psychology
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Level
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Academic year: 2024/2025
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Clinical Psychology –Diagnosing Schizophrenic and Dissociative Disorders
For each of the following scenarios: list several (2-3) irregular behaviors and then diagnosis the patient.
- Disorganized Schizophrenia
- Dissociative Fugue
- Dissociative Amnesia
- Depersonalization Disorder
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Trichotillomania
- Catatonic Schizophrenia
- Paranoid Schizophrenia
- Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Pyromania
- Schizoaffective Disorder
- Munchhausen by Proxy Syndrome
Case 1:
The following is a letter written to a radio station by a man not in a mental hospital.
I am writing you for some information. For over three years I have been tormented and tortured
by parties using or directing something on me. I think it is something in the television or radio field. I am
not a technical man so I can't figure it out. It is invisible, but I sure can feel it. They can send it mild,
medium, and strong. When in building with metal lathing, I can hear a sharp clicking sound in the walls
and feel it working on me. They keep it directed mainly at my chest and abdomen. It causes stiffening and
paralyzing of the muscles and there is a stinging, burning pain. It feels just like a ball of fire working on
my body. It seems to expand my chest and abdomen so much that I feel as though I were going to explode
like a toy balloon. It affects my vision and causes blurring in my sight.
One day when I took an automobile trip and was on the road for five hours, there was no sign of
the trouble. You see, I had gotten away from where they were operating, but when I returned home it
started up again. One night when I went to bed they sprung a picture of a big audience of people before
my eyes.
I notified the F.B. at Washington D. but haven't heard from them so I thought you people
could solve the mystery for me. If you can enlighten me as to what they are using and how to run down or
combat it successfully, I will appreciate the help, as I am very anxious to end this continuous misery.
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 2:
He dressed in flashy pajamas and loud bathrobes, and, was otherwise immodest and careless about his
personal appearance. He neglected his meals and rest hours, and was highly irregular, impulsive and
distractible in his adaptations to ward routine. Without apparent intent to be annoying or disturbing he
sang, whistled, told pointless off color stories, visited indiscriminately and flirted crudely with the nurses
and female patients. Superficially he appeared to be in high spirits, and yet one day when he was being
gently chided over some particularly irresponsible act he suddenly slumped in a chair, covered his face
with his hands, began sobbing and cried, "for Pete's sake, Doc, let me be. Can't you see that I've just got
to act happy?" This reversal of mood was transient and his seeming buoyancy returned in a few moments;
during treatment his defense euphoria disappeared again when he revealed that his wife was unfaithful.
Ronald Bartel has been placed in a mental institution for nearly twenty years for starting a series of fires
that resulted in the deaths of several people. On first appearance, he appears calm and collected. He is
soft spoken and polite when asked about his life. However, when asked about the fires that he set he
becomes visibly aroused especially when he sees pictures of the crime scenes. When asked if he would
ever light a fire again if he were to be released, he replies “yes, because, I just want to see things burn.”
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 4:
The patient lies in bed hardly moving. He does not look at anyone passing by his bed. His facial
expression is empty and unchanging. He is thin and pale and looks physically ill. He refused to eat and
has to be fed by a stomach tube. He cannot control urination or defecation. Occasionally he mutters a few
words like "Sin...Sinners.." apparently preoccupied completely with his thoughts of sin and
punishment. We are quite sure he does not know where he is - he may believe he is in hell.
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 5:
Irene Upton was a 29-year-old special education teacher who sought a psychiatric consultation because
“I’m tired of always being sad and alone.” She had been hospitalized twice for suicidal ideation and
severe self-cutting that required stiches.
She told the therapist that her sister reported “weird sexual touching” by their father when Ms. Upton was
13. There had never been a police investigation, but her father apologized to the patient and her sister as
part of a church intervention. Ms. Upton casually dismissed the possibility that she had ever been abused.
She denied any negative feelings toward her father and said, “He took care of the problem. I have no
reason to be mad at him.”
Ms. Upton reported little memory for her life between about ages 7 and 13 years. Her siblings would joke
about her inability to recall family holidays, school events, and vacation trips. She explained this by
saying, “Maybe nothing important happened and that’s why I don’t remember.”
She denied use of alcohol or drugs, and described intense nausea and stomach pain at even the smell of
alcohol.
While checking into a motel on a fishing trip, a 36-year-old man was distressed to find that he
apparently had someone else’s wallet and credit cards and had inexplicably lost his own. While talking
with the manager to arrange payment, it became apparent that he had no identifying papers or cards, yet
he resembled the person whose picture was on the “other person’s driver’s license” and from documents
in the glove box, he was driving the “other person’s car.” Subsequently, it was determined that he was
actually the “other person” and had unexpectedly left his place of work that morning.
A detailed history revealed no prior serious psychiatric symptoms. He has been a sales manager
for the last six years, is married, and has a 17-year-old son. There have been marital problems and the
day before his “fishing trip,” the son was arrested for breaking and entering a supermarket. Physical
exam is normal except for heart murmur and increased cholesterol.
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 10:
A 55-year-old Caucasian female with a history of substance use disorder, who presented to the local
general hospital with a history of the fragmentation of a single personality into different personalities
under emotional stress and under the influence of a drug. Multiple aspects of her personalities were
reported, including the following: a personality of a seven-year-old child, a personality that would
behave as a teenager, and another that acted like a male person in addition to her normal 55-yearold
personality. She reported that she had been constantly dominated by her alternate personalities and
became aware of their existence when people around her informed her, usually after a situation ended.
She reported that stressful situations and substance abuse could aggravate the fragmentation of her
personality. This was found to be mostly an involuntary phenomenon with seldom memory of the event.
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 11:
Ana appears to be a typical high school student. She gets good grades and has a lot of friends.
However, when she was little, she was in a really bad car accident that resulted in her mother
ended up permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Ever since the accident, Ana experiences
random bouts of anxiety. To cope with the anxiety, she locks herself in the bathroom for hours
at a time and begins pluck the hairs from her head, arms, and pubic area. The result is that she
develops large bald patches. Normally the patches are concealable through how she wears her
hair but lately these hair pulling episodes are increasing in frequency due to the pressures of
college applications. Last week, she started having to wear a hat to school.
Susan is a divorced mother of two daughters. When her husband left several years ago, her
family and friends provided much of the emotional support she needed but eventually the
attention and pity she received went away. But last year her daughter got sick and needed to be
hospitalized. Susan’s community rallied again to help, making Susan feel loved and supported
for the first time since the divorce. A few weeks ago, Susan served her girls expired meat half-
hoping that it would make the girls sick. Thankfully, they were fine. This week, after cleaning
up glass shards from a broken cup, she dropped a couple of the shards into the girls’ spaghetti
sauce. After one of the girls complained about having a stomachache, Susan gleefully reached
for her phone.
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Clinical Psychology –Diagnosing Psychotic Disorders-1
Subject: Psychology
487 Documents
Students shared 487 documents in this course
Level:
Honors
Was this document helpful?
Clinical Psychology –Diagnosing Schizophrenic and Dissociative Disorders
For each of the following scenarios: list several (2-3) irregular behaviors and then diagnosis the patient.
- Disorganized Schizophrenia
- Dissociative Fugue
- Dissociative Amnesia
- Depersonalization Disorder
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Trichotillomania
- Catatonic Schizophrenia
- Paranoid Schizophrenia
- Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Pyromania
- Schizoaffective Disorder
- Munchhausen by Proxy Syndrome
Case 1:
The following is a letter written to a radio station by a man not in a mental hospital.
I am writing you for some information. For over three years I have been tormented and tortured
by parties using or directing something on me. I think it is something in the television or radio field. I am
not a technical man so I can't figure it out. It is invisible, but I sure can feel it. They can send it mild,
medium, and strong. When in building with metal lathing, I can hear a sharp clicking sound in the walls
and feel it working on me. They keep it directed mainly at my chest and abdomen. It causes stiffening and
paralyzing of the muscles and there is a stinging, burning pain. It feels just like a ball of fire working on
my body. It seems to expand my chest and abdomen so much that I feel as though I were going to explode
like a toy balloon. It affects my vision and causes blurring in my sight.
One day when I took an automobile trip and was on the road for five hours, there was no sign of
the trouble. You see, I had gotten away from where they were operating, but when I returned home it
started up again. One night when I went to bed they sprung a picture of a big audience of people before
my eyes.
I notified the F.B.I. at Washington D.C. but haven't heard from them so I thought you people
could solve the mystery for me. If you can enlighten me as to what they are using and how to run down or
combat it successfully, I will appreciate the help, as I am very anxious to end this continuous misery.
Symptoms Diagnosis
Case 2:
He dressed in flashy pajamas and loud bathrobes, and, was otherwise immodest and careless about his
personal appearance. He neglected his meals and rest hours, and was highly irregular, impulsive and
distractible in his adaptations to ward routine. Without apparent intent to be annoying or disturbing he
sang, whistled, told pointless off color stories, visited indiscriminately and flirted crudely with the nurses
and female patients. Superficially he appeared to be in high spirits, and yet one day when he was being
gently chided over some particularly irresponsible act he suddenly slumped in a chair, covered his face
with his hands, began sobbing and cried, "for Pete's sake, Doc, let me be. Can't you see that I've just got
to act happy?" This reversal of mood was transient and his seeming buoyancy returned in a few moments;
during treatment his defense euphoria disappeared again when he revealed that his wife was unfaithful.
Symptoms Diagnosis
