Boldness, eloquence, creativity and persistence are the most common traits associated with many impactful historic leaders. A close look at the leadership in the political arena reveals a darker side for many historic figures. Despite having great accomplishments in the leadership role, evidence shows that many of the historic figures in the political arena battled with mental problems. Given that mental health problems are associated with stigma and weakness, many people hold the perception that a person with a mental health condition cannot be an effective leader. However, recent research on the relationship between leadership and mental illness has revealed that an individual can be a great leader despite having a mental health condition. Many psychiatrists and psychologists have argued that mentally abnormal people become greatest leaders, especially in times of tumult and crisis. As such, people should not stigmatize their leaders for being mentally abnormal. Abraham Lincoln is one of the many historic figures who made great achievements as leaders despite battling with depression. Indeed, depression is a mental condition that has adverse effects on a person’s functionality not only in the workplace but also at home. It would be reasonable to argue that Abraham Lincoln would have made greater achievements during his tenure, if his condition had been treated or prevented in his early life. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the treatment of mental illness through cognitive and behavioral interventions. More specifically, I will use Lincoln’s experiences to develop a treatment plan for depression using psychodynamic therapy. The paper begins with a brief historical background of Lincoln, including his educational background, occupational history, family relationships and other information that would be relevant in understanding Lincoln’s past experiences with mental illness.
Historical background
Born on the 12 th of February, 1809 in Kentucky, United Sates, Abraham Lincoln will forever be remembered for his greatest achievements as the 16 th US president, at a time when the country was facing many challenges and turmoil as a result of the civil war. His parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Lincoln’s family shifted to Indiana in the year 1816 and later to Macon County, Illinois in the year 1830. After settling in New Salem, Lincoln started working as a postmaster and a shopkeeper. Lincoln was a good-natured person who always attracted many friends for his skills in mimicking and storytelling. Despite having little formal education, Lincoln developed interests in reading. Aspiring to become a legislator, Abraham Lincoln involved himself in local politics in support of the Whig Party. This endeavor saw him elected to the state legislature of Illinois in the year 1834. He endeavored in studying law books and passed the bar examination in the year 1836. He later moved to the capital of Springfield where he started working as a lawyer, serving many clients including individual residents and railroad lines in the country. When working as a lawyer, Lincoln met Mary Todd and married her in the year 1842.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
After his election as a congressman in the House of Representatives in the year 1846, Lincoln became unpopular with a majority of Illinois voters due to his strong position against America’s war with Mexico. This pushed him to leave national politics and eventually went back to Springfield in the year 1849. Meanwhile, Stephen Douglas, a democrat congressman was lobbying for the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which allowed voters to decide whether their territory would uphold slavery. Lincoln challenged Douglas concerning the Act, denouncing the spread of slavery in the country. Lincoln later joined the newly formed Republican Party which largely opposed slavery. After been chosen a presidential candidate by the Republicans, Lincoln faced Douglas in the general elections where he won the majority votes and became the US president.
Despite having a simple life and developing a good career path, Lincoln faced various family-related challenges throughout his lifetime, predisposing him to severe depression. Many misfortunes followed Lincoln’s life, beginning with the death of his younger brother Thomas (Tommy) at the age of three days. One of his worst and grieving moment was the death of his mother in the year 1818. Her mother’s death left Lincoln lonely and depressed throughout the winter period following the incidence. Another misfortune that Lincoln faced was the death of his elder sister, Sarah Lincoln, who he considered as a mother figure. Lincoln also suffered three other deaths in his adulthood, leaving him emotionally devastated. The first incidence that saw Lincoln mentally depressed was the death of his first love, Ann Rutledge, who died of typhoid. Another incidence was the death of his son, Edward Baker Lincoln at the age of three years. Twelve years after the death of Edward, Lincoln’s 3 rd son William Wallace Lincoln died of typhoid during his tenure as the US president. These death incidents sent Lincoln into severe depression and suicidal thoughts. Despite his experiences, Abraham Lincoln endeavored to carry out his duties as the president and achieve his career goals. For example, he managed to end slavery and lead the country through Civil War.
Diagnosis
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2018), the term ‘mental illness’ refers to many mental health problems that have negative effects on an individual’s behavior, mood and thinking. Common mental illnesses include schizophrenia, addictive behaviors, eating disorder, anxiety and depression. This means that the signs and symptoms of mental condition vary depending on the type of disorder. Common signs of mental illness include feeling sad, withdrawal from friends, suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, excessive fears, excessive anger, difficulty to concentrate and extreme mood changes (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018).
Grief and sadness were the two major symptoms predominant in Lincoln’s struggles. From his early experiences, it is clear that Lincoln learned grief reactions from his parents and so, he grew up having a negative perception towards life. In many instances, Lincoln experienced serious episodes of sadness and thoughts of failure that always distracted him from his work and career. His exposure to grief especially after the death of his first love further affected his ability to establish intimacy and felt like committing suicide at some point. He also had suicidal thoughts and felt lonely after the death of his two sons. Indeed, the mistakes and perceptions that Lincoln learned during his childhood and teen age significantly affected his adult life. Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the grief reactions, sadness and suicidal thoughts experienced by Lincoln are an indication of depressive disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Studies on the sociology of depression focus on the cultural environment in which individuals live and the social stresses encountered by people throughout their life. Research on the psychosocial and sociocultural correlates of depression indicate that sociological aspects related to depression are influenced by and influence the psychological and biological factors associated with an individual’s life. Research shows that exposure to social stressors such as death of a loved one and trauma can predispose an individual towards depression. Lincoln’s depressive condition can be attributed to exposure to traumatic events (death of loved ones) during his childhood and adulthood. Ethno-medical research suggests that cultural differences and identity influence the severity of depression experienced by an individual. Lincoln’s depression can be attributed to his individualistic-oriented culture. As an individualistic-oriented person, Lincoln spent more time thinking about his failures to achieve success and superiority, hence increasing his vulnerability to depressive behaviors. There is also growing evidence showing that an individual’s biological or genetic make-up can determine whether or not the person can develop depressive behaviors when stressed.
Theoretical Orientation
There are many theoretical orientations, tools and techniques used by psychotherapists to treat mental health conditions. The four major theoretical orientations used in psychological treatment include cognitive-behavioral, humanistic treatment and biological treatment. In a nutshell, Lincoln’s mental health problem was a result of his inability to cope with the stress and grief of losing loved ones. It was also a result of his inability to overcome the thoughts of being a failure in life. Taking into account these ideas, therefore, the most appropriate theoretical orientation that would be used to develop a treatment plan for him is the psychodynamic theory derived from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical approach. The psychoanalytic school of thought emphasizes on how human behavior is influenced by unconscious mind. Freud believed that the mind is consists three elements: the id (primal urges), the ego (component of personality) and the superego (personality that holds values learned from culture and other people, including parents). He argued that complex human behaviors develop as a result of interaction of the three elements (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018).
Psychodynamic psychology focuses on studying the psychological forces that influence the feelings, emotions and behaviors of individuals. It also focuses on how these forces relate to an individual’s early experiences in life. In psychodynamic theory, individuals are viewed in a holistic perspective, whereby their behaviors are linked to their life experiences (Higdon, 2011). The primary goal of psychodynamic therapy, therefore is to enhance and foster patients’ self-awareness and understanding of their thoughts, feelings and emotional behaviors in relation to their experiences in childhood and adulthood (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018).Another goal of treatment is to enhance the patient’s capacity for handling psychological issues attributed to his or her emotional suffering. The role of the counselor (psychodynamic therapist) is to guide the patient through examining unresolved conflicts and stressful events in the past. Common techniques used in psychodynamic therapy include Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM), Rorschach inkblots and free association. Other less common techniques include Freudian slip and dream analysis (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018).
Case Conceptualization
The concepts of psychodynamic theory provide a clear description and representation of Lincoln’s struggles with depression. The theory asserts that an individual’s life experiences in childhood largely influence his or her psychological development and personality structure in adulthood (Higdon, 2011).This assertion implies that people are shaped by what they go through in life and the people they interact with. Having suffered the death of his mother, sister, brother, first love and two sons, Lincoln developed psychological issues that affected his thoughts, emotions and perceptions/feelings towards life. However, he overcame these stressful situations keeping in mind that he had a greater purpose and vision for his life and that of the United States.
A psychodynamic therapist, would embark on treating Lincoln by working with him to discover or identify the factors or events that might have contributed to his depression. The therapist would achieve this by first establishing a positive therapeutic relationship that would allow him or her to probe Lincoln’s past experiences (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018). The establishment of this connection can be achieved by encouraging the patient to express his emotions and feelings. To build trust in this connection, the therapist should guarantee confidentiality of information and respect the abilities of the patient. By discussing Lincoln’s past, the psychodynamic therapist will be in a better position to understand the patterns in his (Lincoln’s) emotions, feelings, behaviors and thoughts (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018).The therapist would also be in a better position to help Lincoln understand how these patterns have affected him emotionally. When interacting with the patient, the therapist would also pay attention to the patient’s habits and reactions to the discussion in order to have an insight of the patient’s habits in other relationships in different social contexts. After this initial interaction, the therapist would then assess the psychological state of the patient to identify observable symptoms associated with depression. In this case, the tool that the therapist would use is the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. At this point, the therapist would interpret the information presented by Lincoln and whatever he or she has observed from the client. Doing so would enhance the patient’s self-awareness and understanding of his thoughts and feelings (Ribeiro, Ribeiro & Von-Doellinger, 2018).This, in turn, would lead to action by the patient. The therapist would encourage and educate the patient on how to cope with stressful situations as those experienced in the past.
Discussion
This paper provides a clear ad detailed discussion of how the psychodynamic therapy would be used in treating people with depressive behaviors. The rationale for using this type of therapy is based on the idea that Lincoln was unable to overcome depression due to continued exposure to stressful events since his childhood. The psychodynamic treatment approach treats patients holistically as it addresses the various psychological and social factors that influence a person’s emotions and behaviors since childhood up to adulthood. For this reason, I expect that psychodynamic therapy would be effective in helping Lincoln overcome his struggles with depression. However, it is not guaranteed that that the psychodynamic therapy used in this paper is the most effective treatment approach for any individual with depression. This is partly, due to conflicting and limited evidence supporting the effectiveness and efficacy of psychodynamic therapy in treating depression (Luyten & Blatt, 2012). Many research studies have provided evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive and behavioral interventions approaches as opposed to psychodynamic therapy (Lopez & Basco, 2015). For this reason, more research on the use of psychodynamic therapy in treating depressive behaviors is needed in order to address the ambiguity of current evidence.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Fifth edition. Arlington, VA.
Higdon, J. (2011). Psychodynamic Theory for Therapeutic Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lopez, M. A., & Basco, M. A. (2015). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy in public mental health: comparison to treatment as usual for treatment-resistant depression. Administration and policy in mental health, 42 (1), 87-98.
Luyten, P., & Blatt, S. J. (2012). Psychodynamic treatment of depression. Psychiatric Clinics, 35 (1), 111-129.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2018). Depression . Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/index.shtml
Ribeiro, Â, Ribeiro, J. P., & von Doellinger, O. (2018). Depression and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 40 (1), 105-109.
