Psychoanalytic Social Theory And Harry Sullivan's Interpersonal Theory
Personality Assessment
Written By: Sarah Marsac
Psychology of Personality
Abstract
I chose to do my personality assessment paper on Detective Olivia Benson from the show Law and Order SVU. She has been one of the lead detectives on the show since the first episode aired in 1998. The two personality theories I chose to use to assess Olivia’s personality are Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, and Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory. Horney’s theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are at the fore front for what is responsible for shaping personality. Sullivan’s theory stated that people develop their personality within a social context. His interpersonal theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages. In this paper I will cover most of the key points of both Sullivan’s and Horney’s theories. I will assess Olivia Benson’s personality through the eyes of both Sullivan and Horney, given the information I have …show more content…
about Olivia’s early years as well as her adult life.
Personality Assessment
For my paper I chose to write about Olivia Benson from Law and Order SVU. The two personality theories I chose to assess Olivia Benson’s personality with are Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, and Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory. I enjoy watching Law and Order SVU and Olivia Benson is one of my favorite characters to watch. I chose Horney’s and Sullivan’s theories because I feel like they fit Olivia’s personality the best, out of my choices. Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality (Feist & Feist, 2009). She stated that people who do not receive enough love and affection to satisfy their needs develop basic hostility towards their parents, which will then lead to them suffering basic anxiety (Feist & Feist, 2009). There are three styles people use to fight basic anxiety and those are moving toward people, moving against people, and moving away from people. Olivia Benson’s mother did not satisfy her needs for love and affection when she was a child. Her mother, Serena Benson, was very abusive to Olivia, both physically and emotionally (Jess, 2009). I believe Olivia Benson had basic anxiety from the hostility she held towards her mother. She used the trend of moving away from people to fight the feelings of anxiety. Olivia, outside of her job, is an extremely private person. Although she has had many failed relationships, she is an extremely independent person. As stated in the book these needs can lead to positive behaviors; however, I believe Olivia tries to satisfy this need compulsively by putting emotional distance between herself and other people who care about her.
Importance of Childhood Experiences
Horney believed that neurotic conflict can stem from any developmental stage, but childhood is the age from which the majority of the problems arise (Feist & Feist, 2009). If a child endures traumatic events during childhood it may leave impressions on that child’s future development. Horney insisted that debilitating experiences such as abuse (both physical and emotional), open rejection, or neglect can be traced back to the lack of genuine love and affection (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia was a product of rape; her biological father raped her mother then left, and then later ended up committing suicide (Wikipedia, nd). Never having her father around as well as knowing that he raped her mother and that is how she was created, on top of her mother physically and emotionally abusing her, has indeed affected Olivia’s personality (Wikipedia, nd). Horney stated “The sum total of childhood experiences brings about a certain character structure starts the development” (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Impact of Culture Karen Horney emphasized that cultural influences are the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development (Feist & Feist, 2009). Modern culture is based on competition among individuals, according to Horney society contributes to this in several respects. People of this society are taught the value of kinship abs humility, which run contrary to aggressiveness and the drive to win or be superior (Feist & Feist, 2009). In Olivia’s case I believe the drive to win, or in other words, to not sleep until she finds the “perp” in whatever case they may be working on. Along with the demands for success and achievement both in society and her job are endless. Both of those contradictions provide intrapsychic conflicts that threaten her psychological health (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Intrapsychic Conflicts: The idealized Self-Image and Self-Hatred
Horney believed that human beings if given an environment of discipline and warmth will develop feelings of security and self-confidence and a tendency to move toward self-realization. Early negative influences often stop people’s natural tendency toward self-realization, which leads them to experience feelings of isolation and inferiority (Feist & Feist, 2009). People then create an idealized self-image, which is an extravagantly positive view of oneself that only exists in their own personal belief system (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia Benson does not have an extreme idealized self-image of herself, and I believe she knows that she is not a “saint” or a “god”. I do believe that she views herself as strong and heroic, which in terms of her job she is, to an extent. She does think of herself as those qualities a bit excessively at times, for example, when she is working a case that she feels really close to she will act as though she is superior to others, even her superiors. Given the fact that she is a special victims detective Olivia always has a partner, her most well known partner is Elliott Stabler. The attitude that Olivia gets sometimes will create hostility between her and her partner, which in turn could affect the case that their working and not in a positive way. If the results were really bad, like maybe losing the “perp” that would lead Olivia to have feelings of self-hatred. Self-hatred, as explained in the book, is the feelings one gets after they realize that their real self does not match their demands of their idealized self (Feist & Feist, 2009). I do not believe that Olivia does this in excess but it is present in her personality. Horney recognized six major ways in which people express self-hatred. Relentless demands on the self are the first of six and it’s basically when someone is continuously pushing themselves. The others are merciless self-accusation or berating oneself, self-contempt, self-frustration, self-torment, and self-destructive actions and impulses (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia expresses her self-hatred with the two forms of relentless demands on the self and self-destructive actions and impulses. She is constantly pushing herself to be better, faster and stronger in her line of work. It is a good thing being that she is a detective; however I don’t think she ever gives herself a break which is where a little neuroticism shows itself. Self-destructive actions and impulses goes right along with that, she is constantly working sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Again being a detective, clearly your job never ends; however, given the type of detective work that she does, her constantly pushing herself is what makes it a form of self-hatred, it is almost like she is punishing herself. I do not think that Olivia Benson is a completely neurotic person but after reading Horney’s theory I do believe that she has neurotic tendencies.
Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages- infancy, Childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. Healthy human development rests on a person’s ability to establish intimacy with another person (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Needs
Needs are tensions brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the psysiochemical environment. They are episodic, once they have been satisfied they temporarily lose their power, after time they are likely to recur Feist & Feist, 2009). As infants we have the need for tenderness which is a general need that our mother can give to us as infants. Olivia’s mother did satisfy her early needs like tenderness to an extent. The fact that her mother was raped and chose to carry and give birth to Olivia shows that she, in some ways, wanted to be a mother. A second type of tension is anxiety; Sullivan stated that anxiety is transferred from the parent to the infant through the process of empathy. Anxiety in the mother inevitably induces anxiety in the infant (Feist & Feist, 2009). Anxiety is the chief disruptive force blocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations as adults (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Dynamisms
Tensions that are transformed into actions, either overt or covert, are called energy transformations. Energy transformations become organized as typical behavior patterns that characterize a person throughout a lifetime. Sullivan called these behavior patterns dynamisms, which means traits or habit patterns (Feist & Feist, 2009). Dynamisms are of two major classes: first those related to specific zones of the body, and second those related to tensions. The second class is composed of three categories; malevolence (a feeling of living in enemy country), intimacy (an integrating experience marked by a close personal relationship with another person who is more or less of equal status), and lust (an isolating dynamism characterized by an impersonal sexual interest in another person (Feist & Feist, 2009). Malevolence originates around two or three years of age when children’s actions, that earlier had brought the response of maternal tenderness, are now ignored or met with anxiety or pain.
I do not know every detail about Olivia’s childhood as the show is based on her life as an adult; however, I can only assume she protected herself by adopting a malevolent attitude. In her biography it states that her mother, Serena, was physically and emotionally abusive to her from a very young age (Wikipedia, nd). Serena controlled Olivia by both physical pain and by saying very hurtful words which in my opinion taught Olivia to withhold her expression for tenderness to protect her own self. There is a statement in the book that Sullivan made that I feel portrays how Olivia feels both about her mother and a lot of the people she deals with in her SVU cases. “Once upon a time everything was lovely, but that was before I had to deal with people” (Feist & Feist,
2009).
Intimacy
Intimacy grows out of the earlier need for tenderness but is more specific. Intimacy is an integrating dynamism that draws out loving reactions from the other person; it decreases anxiety and loneliness which are two painful experiences. It, in most cases is a rewarding experience that most healthy people desire (Feist & Feist, 2009). In Olivia’s case I feel she does desire intimacy but has such a horrible track record she runs from it. When Olivia was sixteen she was engaged to one of her mother’s older students, and when her mother found out she broke a bottle and went after her with it. Olivia fought back and kicked her mother several times (IMDb.com, nd). That was the first of many of Olivia’s failed attempts at intimacy and having a healthy relationship with another person, all of which end after only a short period of time. Olivia’s relationships usually end because of her not being able to commit fully or because of her inability to let her walls down and allow that other person to get close to her. In one of her character biographies she stated that the longest “personal” relationship she has ever been in is with her partner, Elliott Stabler. Their relationship is not and has never been intimate, with both characters describing it as “complicated” (Wikipedia, nd). Her lack of having the ability to be able to get close to someone surly deals with her job as well and all of the negative situations she is put in by men. Olivia has been attacked on several occasions, stalked at least three times, held hostage three times, and has had her throat slit (not deadly) (IMDb.com, nd). The worst attack was when she was under cover at an all female prison and one of the guards was able to get extremely close to raping her. That experience caused Olivia to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, and she was forced to see a therapist (IMDb.com, nd).
Lust
Lust is an isolating tendency, requiring no other person for its satisfaction. Lust is especially powerful during adolescence, which often leads to feelings of low self-esteem. It can lead to increases in anxiety and decreasing feelings of self-worth (Feist & Feist, 2009). That brings me back to the rape that Olivia almost had to endure, it was not Olivia who personally felt lust; however, the guard that tried to attack her was motivated by his own lust. It did not take place during adolescence; however, it led Olivia to feel extremely low self-worth and also negatively affected her self-esteem as well. Most of Olivia’s relationships with men were based off of lust; even if they ended up going a little deeper than that they never lasted long. I can count at least six failed relationships in Olivia’s adult life that have ended, and when they did end all of them left Olivia upset and feeling very negative about herself.
Levels of Cognition: Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic Prototaxic level is the earliest and most primitive experiences of an infant. The experiences cannot be communicated to others; the example in the book is when a baby feels hunger or pain. These feelings result in an observable action, for example, sucking or crying (Feist & Feist, 2009). Parataxic experiences are pre logical and usually result when a person assumes a cause-and-effect relationship between two events that occur coincidentally. Syntaxic experiences are consensually validated and can be symbolically communicated (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Stages of Development Sullivan describes seven stages of development each are crucial to the formation of human personality (Feist & Feist, 2009). I will list all seven; however, only really describe the ones I feel relate to Olivia with the information that I have to work with. Personality change can take place at anytime, but is most likely to occur during the transition from one stage to the next. Sullivan hypothesized that “as one passes over one of these more-or-less determinable thresholds of a developmental era, everything that has gone before becomes reasonably open to influence (Feist & Feist, 2009). His seven stages are as follows: infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. Late adolescence begins when young people are able to feel both lust and intimacy toward the same person, and it ends with adulthood when they establish a lasting love relationship (Feist & Feist, 2009). If previous developmental stages were unsuccessful, young people enter late adolescence with no intimate relations, inconsistent patterns of sexual activity, and a great need to maintain security operations. They rely heavily on the Parataxic mode to avoid anxiety and strive to preserve self-esteem. Believing that love is a universal condition of young people they often are pressured to “fall in love” (Feist & Feist, 2009). This entire explanation of late adolescence explained in the book fits Olivia perfectly in my opinion. I can only assume given her current love life that some of her earlier stages of development throughout her life were unsuccessful. The time when Olivia did bring home someone for her mother to meet was at sixteen, as earlier discussed. I remember the episode and she was thinking back on this day in her life, and how she described the way she was feeling. She did mention that she was a virgin when she did eventually get intimate with this buy (she never disclosed his name). That tells me that some of the later stages were not successful, not that being a virgin at sixteen is bad, and I got the impression that she had never really done anything sexual at all before him. She told her mother that they were in love and that she was leaving to marry him. As stated before her alcoholic mother became enraged and went after Olivia with a broken shard of a vodka bottle. That was one of the last times that she ever saw that boy again (Intoxicated, 2005). I can only imagine how traumatized this would have left Olivia, and I am sure it was a while before she ever let herself get “close” to anyone again.
Adulthood
The successful completion of late adolescence culminates into adulthood, a period when people can establish a loving relationship with at least one significant other. Sullivan stated “this really highly developed intimacy with another is not the principal business life, but is, perhaps the principal source of satisfaction” (Feist & Feist, 2009). Mature adults are perceptive of other people’s anxiety, needs, and security. They operate on the Syntaxic level, and find life interesting and exciting (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia has yet to reach this “mature adult” level, and she seeks the help of therapists quite often in the show. Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the patient’s social environment (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Conclusion
If you take Olivia’s upbringing in terms of her unstable home life, lack of a father figure, the fact that she was informed at a young age that she was a product of rape, and having an abusive mother. With her current job, and all the things she has had to endure with doing that job, like the kidnappings, physical altercations, and almost rape. You can see that Olivia Benson is not a very stable person in terms of psychological health. She tries to be the best she can be, and to do the best she can do every day with her job and in terms of her life in general. Out of both of the theories that I used to assess Olivia Benson’s personality, the one I feel fits her better is Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory. Horney’s theory deals more with cultural impact and the importance of childhood experiences in terms of developing personality. Those two factors are huge in both Olivia’s early years as well as with her current environment.
References
Feist, G., & Feist, J. (2009). Theores Of Personality (Seventh ed., p. 573). Beth Mejia.
Olivia Benson: The Biography. (2009, March 1). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://mariska-online.com/olivia-benson-the-biography/
Olivia Benson. (2014, September 26). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Benson
Wolf, D. (Writer), & Leto, P. (Director). (2005). Intoxicated [Television series episode]. D. Wolf (Producer), Law and Order SVU. New York: NBC.
Biography for: Detective Olivia Benson. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0013472/bio
Written By: Sarah Marsac
Psychology of Personality
Abstract
I chose to do my personality assessment paper on Detective Olivia Benson from the show Law and Order SVU. She has been one of the lead detectives on the show since the first episode aired in 1998. The two personality theories I chose to use to assess Olivia’s personality are Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, and Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory. Horney’s theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are at the fore front for what is responsible for shaping personality. Sullivan’s theory stated that people develop their personality within a social context. His interpersonal theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages. In this paper I will cover most of the key points of both Sullivan’s and Horney’s theories. I will assess Olivia Benson’s personality through the eyes of both Sullivan and Horney, given the information I have …show more content…
about Olivia’s early years as well as her adult life.
Personality Assessment
For my paper I chose to write about Olivia Benson from Law and Order SVU. The two personality theories I chose to assess Olivia Benson’s personality with are Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, and Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory. I enjoy watching Law and Order SVU and Olivia Benson is one of my favorite characters to watch. I chose Horney’s and Sullivan’s theories because I feel like they fit Olivia’s personality the best, out of my choices. Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality (Feist & Feist, 2009). She stated that people who do not receive enough love and affection to satisfy their needs develop basic hostility towards their parents, which will then lead to them suffering basic anxiety (Feist & Feist, 2009). There are three styles people use to fight basic anxiety and those are moving toward people, moving against people, and moving away from people. Olivia Benson’s mother did not satisfy her needs for love and affection when she was a child. Her mother, Serena Benson, was very abusive to Olivia, both physically and emotionally (Jess, 2009). I believe Olivia Benson had basic anxiety from the hostility she held towards her mother. She used the trend of moving away from people to fight the feelings of anxiety. Olivia, outside of her job, is an extremely private person. Although she has had many failed relationships, she is an extremely independent person. As stated in the book these needs can lead to positive behaviors; however, I believe Olivia tries to satisfy this need compulsively by putting emotional distance between herself and other people who care about her.
Importance of Childhood Experiences
Horney believed that neurotic conflict can stem from any developmental stage, but childhood is the age from which the majority of the problems arise (Feist & Feist, 2009). If a child endures traumatic events during childhood it may leave impressions on that child’s future development. Horney insisted that debilitating experiences such as abuse (both physical and emotional), open rejection, or neglect can be traced back to the lack of genuine love and affection (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia was a product of rape; her biological father raped her mother then left, and then later ended up committing suicide (Wikipedia, nd). Never having her father around as well as knowing that he raped her mother and that is how she was created, on top of her mother physically and emotionally abusing her, has indeed affected Olivia’s personality (Wikipedia, nd). Horney stated “The sum total of childhood experiences brings about a certain character structure starts the development” (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Impact of Culture Karen Horney emphasized that cultural influences are the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development (Feist & Feist, 2009). Modern culture is based on competition among individuals, according to Horney society contributes to this in several respects. People of this society are taught the value of kinship abs humility, which run contrary to aggressiveness and the drive to win or be superior (Feist & Feist, 2009). In Olivia’s case I believe the drive to win, or in other words, to not sleep until she finds the “perp” in whatever case they may be working on. Along with the demands for success and achievement both in society and her job are endless. Both of those contradictions provide intrapsychic conflicts that threaten her psychological health (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Intrapsychic Conflicts: The idealized Self-Image and Self-Hatred
Horney believed that human beings if given an environment of discipline and warmth will develop feelings of security and self-confidence and a tendency to move toward self-realization. Early negative influences often stop people’s natural tendency toward self-realization, which leads them to experience feelings of isolation and inferiority (Feist & Feist, 2009). People then create an idealized self-image, which is an extravagantly positive view of oneself that only exists in their own personal belief system (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia Benson does not have an extreme idealized self-image of herself, and I believe she knows that she is not a “saint” or a “god”. I do believe that she views herself as strong and heroic, which in terms of her job she is, to an extent. She does think of herself as those qualities a bit excessively at times, for example, when she is working a case that she feels really close to she will act as though she is superior to others, even her superiors. Given the fact that she is a special victims detective Olivia always has a partner, her most well known partner is Elliott Stabler. The attitude that Olivia gets sometimes will create hostility between her and her partner, which in turn could affect the case that their working and not in a positive way. If the results were really bad, like maybe losing the “perp” that would lead Olivia to have feelings of self-hatred. Self-hatred, as explained in the book, is the feelings one gets after they realize that their real self does not match their demands of their idealized self (Feist & Feist, 2009). I do not believe that Olivia does this in excess but it is present in her personality. Horney recognized six major ways in which people express self-hatred. Relentless demands on the self are the first of six and it’s basically when someone is continuously pushing themselves. The others are merciless self-accusation or berating oneself, self-contempt, self-frustration, self-torment, and self-destructive actions and impulses (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia expresses her self-hatred with the two forms of relentless demands on the self and self-destructive actions and impulses. She is constantly pushing herself to be better, faster and stronger in her line of work. It is a good thing being that she is a detective; however I don’t think she ever gives herself a break which is where a little neuroticism shows itself. Self-destructive actions and impulses goes right along with that, she is constantly working sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Again being a detective, clearly your job never ends; however, given the type of detective work that she does, her constantly pushing herself is what makes it a form of self-hatred, it is almost like she is punishing herself. I do not think that Olivia Benson is a completely neurotic person but after reading Horney’s theory I do believe that she has neurotic tendencies.
Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory Harry Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages- infancy, Childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. Healthy human development rests on a person’s ability to establish intimacy with another person (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Needs
Needs are tensions brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the psysiochemical environment. They are episodic, once they have been satisfied they temporarily lose their power, after time they are likely to recur Feist & Feist, 2009). As infants we have the need for tenderness which is a general need that our mother can give to us as infants. Olivia’s mother did satisfy her early needs like tenderness to an extent. The fact that her mother was raped and chose to carry and give birth to Olivia shows that she, in some ways, wanted to be a mother. A second type of tension is anxiety; Sullivan stated that anxiety is transferred from the parent to the infant through the process of empathy. Anxiety in the mother inevitably induces anxiety in the infant (Feist & Feist, 2009). Anxiety is the chief disruptive force blocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations as adults (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Dynamisms
Tensions that are transformed into actions, either overt or covert, are called energy transformations. Energy transformations become organized as typical behavior patterns that characterize a person throughout a lifetime. Sullivan called these behavior patterns dynamisms, which means traits or habit patterns (Feist & Feist, 2009). Dynamisms are of two major classes: first those related to specific zones of the body, and second those related to tensions. The second class is composed of three categories; malevolence (a feeling of living in enemy country), intimacy (an integrating experience marked by a close personal relationship with another person who is more or less of equal status), and lust (an isolating dynamism characterized by an impersonal sexual interest in another person (Feist & Feist, 2009). Malevolence originates around two or three years of age when children’s actions, that earlier had brought the response of maternal tenderness, are now ignored or met with anxiety or pain.
I do not know every detail about Olivia’s childhood as the show is based on her life as an adult; however, I can only assume she protected herself by adopting a malevolent attitude. In her biography it states that her mother, Serena, was physically and emotionally abusive to her from a very young age (Wikipedia, nd). Serena controlled Olivia by both physical pain and by saying very hurtful words which in my opinion taught Olivia to withhold her expression for tenderness to protect her own self. There is a statement in the book that Sullivan made that I feel portrays how Olivia feels both about her mother and a lot of the people she deals with in her SVU cases. “Once upon a time everything was lovely, but that was before I had to deal with people” (Feist & Feist,
2009).
Intimacy
Intimacy grows out of the earlier need for tenderness but is more specific. Intimacy is an integrating dynamism that draws out loving reactions from the other person; it decreases anxiety and loneliness which are two painful experiences. It, in most cases is a rewarding experience that most healthy people desire (Feist & Feist, 2009). In Olivia’s case I feel she does desire intimacy but has such a horrible track record she runs from it. When Olivia was sixteen she was engaged to one of her mother’s older students, and when her mother found out she broke a bottle and went after her with it. Olivia fought back and kicked her mother several times (IMDb.com, nd). That was the first of many of Olivia’s failed attempts at intimacy and having a healthy relationship with another person, all of which end after only a short period of time. Olivia’s relationships usually end because of her not being able to commit fully or because of her inability to let her walls down and allow that other person to get close to her. In one of her character biographies she stated that the longest “personal” relationship she has ever been in is with her partner, Elliott Stabler. Their relationship is not and has never been intimate, with both characters describing it as “complicated” (Wikipedia, nd). Her lack of having the ability to be able to get close to someone surly deals with her job as well and all of the negative situations she is put in by men. Olivia has been attacked on several occasions, stalked at least three times, held hostage three times, and has had her throat slit (not deadly) (IMDb.com, nd). The worst attack was when she was under cover at an all female prison and one of the guards was able to get extremely close to raping her. That experience caused Olivia to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, and she was forced to see a therapist (IMDb.com, nd).
Lust
Lust is an isolating tendency, requiring no other person for its satisfaction. Lust is especially powerful during adolescence, which often leads to feelings of low self-esteem. It can lead to increases in anxiety and decreasing feelings of self-worth (Feist & Feist, 2009). That brings me back to the rape that Olivia almost had to endure, it was not Olivia who personally felt lust; however, the guard that tried to attack her was motivated by his own lust. It did not take place during adolescence; however, it led Olivia to feel extremely low self-worth and also negatively affected her self-esteem as well. Most of Olivia’s relationships with men were based off of lust; even if they ended up going a little deeper than that they never lasted long. I can count at least six failed relationships in Olivia’s adult life that have ended, and when they did end all of them left Olivia upset and feeling very negative about herself.
Levels of Cognition: Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic Prototaxic level is the earliest and most primitive experiences of an infant. The experiences cannot be communicated to others; the example in the book is when a baby feels hunger or pain. These feelings result in an observable action, for example, sucking or crying (Feist & Feist, 2009). Parataxic experiences are pre logical and usually result when a person assumes a cause-and-effect relationship between two events that occur coincidentally. Syntaxic experiences are consensually validated and can be symbolically communicated (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Stages of Development Sullivan describes seven stages of development each are crucial to the formation of human personality (Feist & Feist, 2009). I will list all seven; however, only really describe the ones I feel relate to Olivia with the information that I have to work with. Personality change can take place at anytime, but is most likely to occur during the transition from one stage to the next. Sullivan hypothesized that “as one passes over one of these more-or-less determinable thresholds of a developmental era, everything that has gone before becomes reasonably open to influence (Feist & Feist, 2009). His seven stages are as follows: infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. Late adolescence begins when young people are able to feel both lust and intimacy toward the same person, and it ends with adulthood when they establish a lasting love relationship (Feist & Feist, 2009). If previous developmental stages were unsuccessful, young people enter late adolescence with no intimate relations, inconsistent patterns of sexual activity, and a great need to maintain security operations. They rely heavily on the Parataxic mode to avoid anxiety and strive to preserve self-esteem. Believing that love is a universal condition of young people they often are pressured to “fall in love” (Feist & Feist, 2009). This entire explanation of late adolescence explained in the book fits Olivia perfectly in my opinion. I can only assume given her current love life that some of her earlier stages of development throughout her life were unsuccessful. The time when Olivia did bring home someone for her mother to meet was at sixteen, as earlier discussed. I remember the episode and she was thinking back on this day in her life, and how she described the way she was feeling. She did mention that she was a virgin when she did eventually get intimate with this buy (she never disclosed his name). That tells me that some of the later stages were not successful, not that being a virgin at sixteen is bad, and I got the impression that she had never really done anything sexual at all before him. She told her mother that they were in love and that she was leaving to marry him. As stated before her alcoholic mother became enraged and went after Olivia with a broken shard of a vodka bottle. That was one of the last times that she ever saw that boy again (Intoxicated, 2005). I can only imagine how traumatized this would have left Olivia, and I am sure it was a while before she ever let herself get “close” to anyone again.
Adulthood
The successful completion of late adolescence culminates into adulthood, a period when people can establish a loving relationship with at least one significant other. Sullivan stated “this really highly developed intimacy with another is not the principal business life, but is, perhaps the principal source of satisfaction” (Feist & Feist, 2009). Mature adults are perceptive of other people’s anxiety, needs, and security. They operate on the Syntaxic level, and find life interesting and exciting (Feist & Feist, 2009). Olivia has yet to reach this “mature adult” level, and she seeks the help of therapists quite often in the show. Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the patient’s social environment (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Conclusion
If you take Olivia’s upbringing in terms of her unstable home life, lack of a father figure, the fact that she was informed at a young age that she was a product of rape, and having an abusive mother. With her current job, and all the things she has had to endure with doing that job, like the kidnappings, physical altercations, and almost rape. You can see that Olivia Benson is not a very stable person in terms of psychological health. She tries to be the best she can be, and to do the best she can do every day with her job and in terms of her life in general. Out of both of the theories that I used to assess Olivia Benson’s personality, the one I feel fits her better is Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory. Horney’s theory deals more with cultural impact and the importance of childhood experiences in terms of developing personality. Those two factors are huge in both Olivia’s early years as well as with her current environment.
References
Feist, G., & Feist, J. (2009). Theores Of Personality (Seventh ed., p. 573). Beth Mejia.
Olivia Benson: The Biography. (2009, March 1). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://mariska-online.com/olivia-benson-the-biography/
Olivia Benson. (2014, September 26). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Benson
Wolf, D. (Writer), & Leto, P. (Director). (2005). Intoxicated [Television series episode]. D. Wolf (Producer), Law and Order SVU. New York: NBC.
Biography for: Detective Olivia Benson. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0013472/bio