The Changing Goals in the Family, Essay Example

Looking at the members from the movie Parenthood, it is clear that the entire family unit needs to attend therapy. Each family member is shrouded in their own issues, and have chosen different ways in which to deal with their problems. The biggest one of course if Garry, who has to deal with the abandonment of his father at a young age, and the knowledge that his father does not was not to spend time with him. I am a growing boy trying to develop at a time where a male figure is essential to understanding the urges and the changes that are going on in my body. Not only do I have to deal with an absentee father but also a busy mom, which is wrapped up in her own issues of dealing with an ex-husband who abandoned her with two teenagers. I and my father had fashioned a close relationship, so the disruption of my dad from his life forced a cognitive agreement within me to revert to an introspective state. Which I have chosen to seclude myself from my family, and have scarce communication with my mother. My room is plastered with locks and angry posters throughout his room, and to prevent anyone from coming back in. My biggest problems are that I am conflicted with my sexual development as I carry around a brown carrier bag of condoms. The underlying issues are handling complicated issues at a time within my life cycle, while not a central male role figure among the house.

Julie also has issues stemming from the problems in the family. I have to deal with my father leaving as I turned to father figure to help me deal with dating and getting older. But also the absence of my mother who is deep in her feelings about being left by the man she loved, who went on to start a new family. I have pushed back any feelings of trying to connect with my father, and for good reason. If he did not want us in his life, than I do not want him in my mind. I have been in a relationship with Tod, and he treats me and my brother well. I am pregnant with his baby, and plan on starting a new family with him. I have found school to be boring and unneeded, as I feel that Tod will take care of us. I feel that I am getting to stage where I am ready to leave the nest, and began my own family. My mother is stuck dealing with her marriage falling apart, and having to cope with her children getting older, and leaving home.

Garry is displays significantly extremely emotional response when his father rejects him he destroys his father’s workplace. His point in development is in the puberty stage wherever “finding one’s own voice, is that the beginning development of legitimacy” (McGoldrick, Carter, Garcia-Preto 2011).  His feelings of anxiety, confusion, and abandonment, is all dominant part in his response to his familial issues and level of development.

The family is dealing with several stresses as they transition to each stage in the life cycle. It is clear that the family is affected by the stress of the father leaving the family, Garry trying to develop into a young adult, and Julie become a parent at an early age. The stage of a couple between Susan and her ex-husband is abandoned, as he chooses to abandon the family. Susan is left to take on the roles of parenting, handling all the labor, and adjusting the boundaries of the kids, while also launching the children. The stressors includes divorce, single parenting, and the children withdrawing from school, and acting out. This is where Garry is as his emotional problems have proven very stressful as he chooses to act out, and develop several behavioral problems. As clinicians seek to understand the stressors in these clients live, they can better serve as a support, and the person that can find a solution to search for red flags for conditions such as anxiety, depression, migraines, and other problems. Looking at the DSM-5 diagnosis, Garry would be considered antisocial personality disorder, since he chooses to seclude himself, withdraw from school, and have locks on his doors. Julie can be considered limited prosocial emotion, since she has withdrawn from school, and only chooses to spend time with her boyfriend.

References

McGoldrick, M., Carter, B., & Garcia-Preto, N. (2011). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon