Evaluate The Relevance Of Harvey's Theory

I feel that because of Harvey’s traumatic past (from witnessing his mom cheating on dad, his mom abandoning him, the loss of his father, and not so supporting brother who has gambling issues) and his mental health would contribute to his behaviour. His childhood experience could justify for his black-and-white view of relationship. He would either trust someone completely or not at all, and those who he trusts completely somehow end up “leaving him.” Harvey, who may seem arrogant and heartless on the outside, is an emotional and caring person underneath. Later on in the show, Harvey emotional wounds reopens when three of his closest friends leave him, which would explain why he has trouble sleeping at night and has panic attacks during the day. He tries to keep the fact that he goes to therapy a secret because he perceives it as a sign of weakness.

Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Cognitive & Humanist Theories
In a way, Harvey’s therapist took more of a psychodynamic approach because she has to resolve his conflicted conscious and unconscious feelings. She approaches the therapy by performing
psychoanalysis. She examines Harvey’s dreams and uses free association, making him say whatever comes into his mind.
She also tries to understand his past experience by investigating the child-parent relationship of her patient. This supports Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory, that one factor that shapes human behaviour is by child experiences, which also in turn, influences the unconscious mind through life (Jan Haskings-Winner). I feel that Harvey’s therapy session is in support of B.F Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning. His quick temper always gets in the way whenever his therapist tries to dig deeper to find out about his past, and since he has trouble sleeping at night and experience panic attacks during the day, his therapist applies the reward and punishment approach by punishing him if he would not do of what she asks him to do, for example, taking a step closer to talk to his mom, see his brother, or
even answer her questions. As a reward, if Harvey does what is asked of him to do, she would give him medication to help him with his sleep and panic attacks. Trying to connect Harvey’s behaviour to Albert Bandura’s social-cognitive theory and his Bobo Doll experiment, I believe that by seeing his mom cheating on his dad numerous times, it took a toll on him as he grew up. Harvey is known for his “morning meetings,” or which he calls, “sleep ins.” He brags that he does it everyday, though he does it every so often. I feel that since he watched his mom engage in such a manner that Harvey eventually picked it up when he was young, and now “sleeps in” quite often as a way to escape the reality that he refuses to face, but one thing that he does differently is that he does not sleep with married women. I assume that he uses his wits as a defence mechanism of projection so that it helps him cope with his anxiety. An example would be that Harvey always takes out his frustration on Louis at work, even when he may have done nothing wrong. There could be something going on in Harvey’s life and as a result, he shifts his anger onto someone else. In addition, the therapist uses the empty chair technique on Harvey, and I feel that she does this because he has to resolve the conflict between him and his mother to make the panic attack that he experiences go away. She makes him pretend that he