WHICH DSM DIAGNOSIS DOES THE CLIENT HAVE
I speculate that I would diagnose Sam with a personality disorder, specifically the Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Schizotypal personality disorder is defined in the DSM 5 as a pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behaviour, beginning by adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. Sam has met the following criteria of the schizotypal personality disorder:
Significant Impairments in personality functioning which manifest by: a. Identity: Confused boundaries between self and others; distorted self-concept; emotional expression often not congruent with context or internal experience. The case states that Sam has always been an odd child and that his behaviour around people especially those that are outside of his
…show more content…
The formulation of personality (and, consequently, the potential for disorder) occurs during child development. No parent and no family environment is perfect. Thus, the imperfections of that home environment will lead to the development of some personality “skew.”
In Sam cases the home environment was significantly traumatic, or damaging to the psyche of the child and this created the potential for development of a full-blown personality disorder. This is evident in the case where it says “Sam’s father died very suddenly when he was seven years old, from a heart attack. Sam was alone at home with his father at the time and didn’t know what to do when his father collapsed in front of him…. ’ This is a major stressor that could have triggered Sam’s disorder as he was only a child and this could have scared him for