What Celebrity Case Studies Can Teach about Clinical Formulation of Mental Health Conditions

Abstract

A key challenge in the ‘making of the psychologist’ is how to teach clinical case formulation, which goes beyond just listing the symptoms that make the ‘diagnosis’. One approach which has been both effective and popular among students entails employing case studies of individuals who are celebrities with known mental health conditions and then exploring not only their presenting problems and symptoms, but also a detailed analysis of biopsychosocial predisposing concerns, precipitating events, perpetuating circumstances, and protective factors. Nine cases deemed to be particularly suitable for such psychobiographical instruction are reviewed to illustrate the learning points about case formulation. The cases were chosen because they provide a breadth of presenting symptoms and the individuals under consideration are ones who for the most part have been self-disclosing about their conditions, which makes the clinical material accessible for study; a number have been leaders in the fight against mental illness stigma. The use of celebrity case accounts serves to develop talents in case formulation and appreciation for the complexity of people and the developmental influences in identity formation. Further pedagogic benefits are heightened awareness of mental health stigma issues and the personal and societal barriers individuals face in seeking needed help.     

Restarting the Imagination,Refinding the World: A Discussion of “Activating Lifeness in the Analytic Encounter” and “‘What If’ Dimensions of the Analytic Field”

Quite different in focus and intent, these two papers address, each in their own ways, an emerging current running through contemporary psychoanalysis. In her paper, Peltz (this issue) outlines the contours of a paradigm shift, in which the question of dehumanization come to the fore. Peltz highlights the importance of a kind of engagement and posture that she describes in terms of the vitalizing presence of the analyst. In exploring what he calls the “what-if” dimension of the clinical field, Cartwright (this issue) re-conceptualizes the imagination in terms of how it frees us up for renewed experience of the vitality of objects. Both papers draw attention to the importance of catalyzing a renewed perceptual engagement with the world of objects in an age of detachment and psychical disenchantment.     

Acculturation-related variables, sexual initiation, and subsequent sexual behavior among Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Cuban youth.

The relationship among acculturation-related variables, past sexual activity, and subsequent sexual behavior was examined for a sample of Latino youth in the United States over a 12-month period. A subsample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health database was analyzed by means of a prospective design. History of sexual intercourse predicted subsequent sexual behavior over the ensuing 12 months. The acculturation-related variables were related to whether an adolescent reported being sexually active at Wave 1 but in a complex fashion. Among recent immigrants, youth from English-speaking homes were less likely to be sexually active than those from Spanish-speaking homes. The opposite was observed for youth who were born in the United States or who had resided in the United States most of their lives.     

Anti‐reductionism and Expected Trust

According to anti‐reductionism, audiences have a default (but defeasible) epistemic entitlement to accept observed testimony. This paper explores the prospects of arguing from this premise to a conclusion in ethics, to the effect that speakers enjoy a default (but defeasible) moral entitlement to expect to be trusted when they testify. After proposing what I regard as the best attempt to link the two, I conclude that any argument from the one to the other will depend on a strong epistemological assumption that has not yet been discussed in this connection.