Case+Study+I

Decide if the person described in Case Study 1 below is suffering from a psychological disorder. Open a word document or notepad and jot down the reasons for your diagnosis. Be prepared to defend your answer.


 * Case Study I**

Anne is a sixteen-year-old girl living in a medium-sized city in the Midwest. Her family includes a mother, father, fourteen-year-old brother, and a great-aunt, who has lived with the family since Anne was four. Anne is a junior at City High School and is taking a college-preparatory program. Her appearance is strikingly different from the other girls in her class. She wears blouses which she has made out of various scraps of material. The blouses are accompanied by the same pair of overalls everyday, two mismatched shoes, and a hat with a blue feather. She is a talented artist, producing sketches of her fellow classmates that are remarkably accurate. She draws constantly, even when told that to do so will lower her grade in classes where she is expected to take lecture notes. She has no friends at school, but seems undisturbed by the fact that she eats lunch by herself and walks alone around the campus. Her grades are erratic; if she likes a class she often receives an A or B, but will do no work at all in those she dislikes. Anne can occasionally be heard talking to herself; she is interested in poetry, and says she is "composing" if asked about her poetry. She refuses to watch television, calling it a "wasteland." This belief is carried into the classroom, where she refuses to watch videotapes, saying they are poor excuses for teaching. Her parents say they don’t understand her; she isn’t like anyone in their family. She and her brother have very little in common. He is embarassed by Anne’s behavior, and doesn’t understand her either. Anne seems blithely unaware of her apparent isolation, except for occasional outbursts about the meaninglessness of most people’s activities.

Case Study II Case Study III