Diagnosis in the Multiaxial DSM System for Donkey
Axis I – General Behavior Disorder
Axis II – Histrionic Personality Disorder
Axis III – Moderate to high hypertension
Axis IV – Problems with primary support group (Shrek and Fiona being annoyed at the over talkative personality and need for attention). Problem related to social environment (afraid of losing his best friend Shrek).
Axis V – GAF = 41 Histrionic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder are examples of disorders that this paper will discuss of two characters from the movie Shrek 2. The paper aims at highlighting the symptoms, as well as the treatment for the two disorders.
Personality Disorders According to DSM’s categorization of disorders, Axis II disorders comprise personality and mental retardation disorders. Personality disorders are defined as those behaviors that tend to deviate from cultural and individual expectations. They are an enduring pattern in behaving that departs from what would be considered normal behaviors within the culture as well as to the individual. The quality of existence of a deviating behavior occurring for a sustained (enduring) period is usually the primary diagnostic criteria for a person suffering from a personality disorder.
Histrionic Personality Disorders Histrionic personality disorders are defined by the DSM as a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. Not being the center of attention, provocative behavior, shallow expressions of emotions, uses physical appearance, speech is excessively expressionistic, and exaggerated expression of emotion. The second category that is targeted by the psychologist is the person’s impulse control. How the person is able to control impulses such as excitement, joy, anger and other such feelings is so high in this. People who generally seem to be extensively overexcited, such as those who talk too much and in this case does not give others the chance to talk, as well as those who laugh uncontrollably and for extended periods are categories who could easily be on the line to a histrionic personality disorder. People suffering from histrionic personality disorders are also identified with their detrimental outer personal functioning. Such may come out as very charming and beautiful.
The Donkey from Shrek 2
The donkey is observed to be portraying a histrionic personality disorder. The donkey comes out as fulfilling the primary diagnostic criteria of deviating behaviors that are observed to be enduring. On many instances, the donkey is observed to be depicting behaviors that deviate from what would be seen as normal. This behavior that endures in his character is the behavior of talkativeness; need to be the center of attention, and self-dramatization. The donkey is extremely talkative. Donkey seems completely unable to keep quite from his loud talking. On many occasions, Donkey’s overly talking disgusts others. It is not expected by others in the movie, as it is to his best friend Shrek. According to what is normal in this culture, one must have control on how they talk. The bad side of the Donkey talking too much is seen when Shrek finds him as poor company when they first meet. Shrek seems unable to put up with his loud and unstoppable talking. Even in poor situations, the donkey’s talking is observed. In Shrek 2, the donkey keeps talking on and on while they are on their way to the Kingdom of Far Far Away. This talking seems to be annoying Shrek and Fiona who keep hearing Donkey asking, “Are we there yet” repeatedly and Shrek and Fiona keep answering to him in a monotonous tone of ‘No’. As is evidenced in this scene, the two friends are annoyed by the donkey’s behavior and in this case Donkey cannot keep quiet and concentrate on the journey they were making. The personality of the donkey comes out as noisy through the entire journey. Furthermore, the donkey is also seen to have a certain idle chatter that he is repeating repeatedly to the annoyance of many. Those who are around Donkey while he sings this song are evidently annoyed by his behaviors. To Donkey, this is a love song. Anxiety is also evident in the behaviors of the donkey. Donkey seems over anxious to engage in things even before clear considerations. In this anxiety, the donkey come out as overly naïve and sometimes even too dim is his calculations. When the two friends (Donkey and Shrek) find the Fairy Godmother’s potion, the donkey readily helps himself to it. Donkey does not give a thought to the potion and its potential for harm. To accompany this act without thought, the donkey continues assuring Shrek that everything was okay, even after he had proved so by drinking the contents from the bottle. Donkey’s act catches up with him when he faints later from the effect of the potion he had taken. The tendency to anxiety in the donkey is also observed in the instance when he and Shrek meet Puss in Boots (cat) who had unsuccessfully tried to kill Shrek under instructions. The donkey’s instinct instantly tells him that Shrek should immediately punish the cat. However, Shrek forgives the cat and Donkey is very upset and unforgiving towards the cat. Furthermore, the donkey comes out as doing things out of no clear thought. The donkey’s lack of consideration is seen when he later realizes how the cat was helpful to them and later Donkey makes a good friendship with Puss in Boots (cat).
Treatment of Donkey’s disorder Psychodynamic psychotherapy can indeed help the donkey. This kind of psychotherapy is based on the belief that, it is the conflicts within a person, which usually cause such a person to exhibit abnormal behaviors. This is true for the case of the donkey. The donkey, does not love who he is. This is clear, in the case where he is not turned into a beautiful stallion, as is the case with Shrek not being human as the movie ends. The donkey is saddened that he is still a donkey. Overall, the donkey seemed to dislike the fact that he is a donkey and not a beautiful stallion. Since the donkey will not change into a stallion, the purpose of the psychodynamic therapy will be to help the donkey accept who he is and not to be obsessed with becoming who he cannot be. The therapy will help the donkey through providing the positives that are to be found in being a donkey as opposed to being a beautiful stallion. The donkey from this therapy will come out accepting himself more and therefore without conflicts. Talk therapy (psychotherapy) can help donkey understand and cope with his abnormalities. Group and family (Shrek and Fiona) would be very beneficial in donkey’s treatment. Individual therapy should be short term and group therapy should be for as long as needed. It should be explained to donkey that there is no pill or quick fix for this disorder and with the support of Shrek and Fiona he can learn to control his abnormalities.
Diagnosis in the Multiaxial DSM System for King Harold
Axis I – Generalized Delusional Disorder
Axis II – Borderline Personality Disorder
Axis III – Low to moderate hypertension
Axis IV – Problems with primary support group (spouse and daughter not seeing his rationale for the situation). Problems related to social environment (afraid of losing his man-hood, being turned back into a frog and not being able to control who his daughter loves).
Axis V – GAF = 60
Borderline Personality Disorder Borderline personality disorder is usually experienced by people who suffer from it in many ways. Delusions account for the primary diagnosis for one suffering from the disorder. In delusions, the person who is suffering from the disorder is usually identified with qualities portraying their inability to distinguish between what is reality and what is a personal misconception about their environments. These delusions usually portray that the person’s emotions are inhibiting the normal cognitive functionality. Delusions are accompanied by a number of other diagnostic symptoms. Depression usually rides high among these symptoms. Besides depression, people with borderline personality disorder are also usually identified in having attachment problems. They are observed to having the fear losing people who have entered into their lives. A person with borderline personality disorder is usually one who has a low self concept and may constantly engage in personal accusations. These unfair accusations of the self may end in depression. Such a person critically depends on other people for emotional support. They may be too eager to enter into relationships, as well as becoming depressed whenever they have problems with a relationship. They may also become unable to let go and continue clinging to such relationships that have ended. People suffering from borderline personality disorder are also identified by impulsive behaviors. Examples of such behaviors may relate to sex, eating, or even spending. Such people may also be characterized by a tendency to move easily from devolutions to idealization. They may be one moment high up in self-esteem and the next minute has low self-esteem. Stress is usually another key symptom associated with people suffering from borderline personality disorder.
King Harold in Shrek 2 King Harold in Shrek 2 comes out as operating from what is in his mind rather than from the reality in his environment. King Harold for example, does not accept the existence of a strong love between his daughter and Shrek. According to him, his daughter cannot be in love with Shrek who in this case is an ogre. The belief by King Harold is that his daughter was out of her mind and that she was not operating normally. King Harold believes that Shrek potentially bewitched his daughter and thus blinded her. Overall, through the actions of the king, he comes out as living with a vow to block the reality in the existence of love between Shrek and his daughter Fiona. King Harold portrays much of the qualities identified in borderline personality disorder. Another example the king displays is, mainly depicted as highly attached to his daughter Fiona. King Harold seems to be ready to go all the way not to lose her into what he believes is a grave mistake. Therefore, this may appear as a fatherly responsibility to protect the daughter from a costly mistake of marrying an ogre. However, it does not sound so because when Fiona comes in with Shrek who she had decided to marry and she too is already an ogre and thus the case would be for the father to accept it this way. The strong attachment King Harold has to his daughter Fiona is seen when he sets out to kill Shrek, in order to have his daughter back. King Harold first employs the service of Puss in Boots (cat) to kill Shrek. The Kings conceptualization is that once Shrek is dead, his daughter would move on and get over the love for him. As it turns out, the cat fails and tells Shrek of the Kings plan. King Harold does not end there; instead he is ready to work with the Fairy Godmother to eliminate Shrek and to keep his secret (being a frog that turned human) from his family and Shrek. King Harold also comes out as a man who is usually overwhelmed by self accusations and depression. After King Harold realizes that he was completely wrong in relation to his belief on the love between his daughter and Shrek, the King falls back into depression and excessive accusations. King Harold’s actions seem to make him bitter about his self to a point where he is sad about his very existence. These excessive accusations reach their peak when the King decides to do one single act that would for once prove to him that he was not bad. King Harold decides to take the wrath of Fairy Godmother‘s wand that was to end the life of Shrek. In this act, the King is seen as coming out in the defense of Shrek and his daughter Fiona. By doing so, he seeks to mend the acts which his bad self had reached in blocking the love of the two. The poor self image also comes out when the King changes back to his original state, a frog. In this state, the King says he was sorry for not being a better man. Overall, these sentiments show that the King had lived through his interaction with Shrek believing his action was bad, but continuing with the same.
Treatment of the king’s disorder Cognitive behavior therapy can be the best for treating the borderline personality disorder observed in the king. Overall, cognitive behavior therapy is a type of psychoanalytic treatment that bases on the assumption that it is usually a distorted thought process that results into abnormal behaviors. In the case of King Harold, it is evident that his high thinking about his daughter is the distorted thought process. King Harold is distorting reality because what is real is that it was his daughter who had her own destiny in her hands. Overall, the view of this behavior therapy would be to make the King realize the need to understand that his daughter was independent, with her own thoughts and thus own way of choosing what is best for her. In behavior therapy, the King will be made to recognize how unreal his expectations on his daughter were. It will make him realize how his attempt to control the love relationship of his daughter was an excessive reach into the personal space of another person and how such was bound to bring tensions not only to his daughter, but also to himself. With King Harold besides the use of medications, he would be taught on how to better take control of his life, his emotions, and himself through self-knowledge, emotion regulation, and cognitive restructuring. As identified in the paper, personality disorders have symptoms that are primarily diagnosed from deviating behaviors that persist for a considerable length of time. Borderline personality disorder on the other hand has been identified as being diagnosed by behaviors portraying a bended thought process.
