Humanistic approach on Andrea Yates

Andrea Yates was a mother of five children, who lived in Houston Texas, according to the article Biography.com, Yates drowned her children one after the other in the bath tub of her home. In this article we take a humanistic approach to look at the events that took place earlier and up to the murder of her children. We want to look into the inner self of Andrea Yates, looking at all mental and physical disorder that may have troubled her. Yates was the youngest of five children and according Wikipedia Yates even as a teen suffered from bulimia but was a high achiever, doing Swimming team then going on to nursing school. The article explains that during these early year she attempted suicide. In a humanistic approach these early years show that some of Yates needs may have not been met. While there is no evidence that her basic needs went without it is possible with having so many siblings that Yates may have felt …show more content…
Shortly after being married and the birth of their first son, Yates husband work uprooted them from their new home moving them from Texas to Florida, then back to Texas by the time of their third son. The article from Wikipedia explained that during the time of the birth of their fourth son Yates had become depressed. In Carl Rodgers view of humanism Yates was not able to reach self- actualization because one or more of the main five needs were not being met during this time. Yates may not have been open to experience, because all the moving she may have wanted at this point to stay in one area. There could have also been trust issues between her and her family causing her depression, along with issues maybe in the feeling of being creative and having a fulfilled life. It does seem during this time that Yates was indeed working on existential living, seeing a preacher by the name of Michael