Case History of Eric B.

Case History of Eric B.

Eric is a 6-year old African-american male who was raised in an impoverished inner city neighborhood in Chicago. Drugs and violence surrounded his daily life. With a single-mother who involved herself in a series of relationships with abusive boyfriends, Eric found himself beat with a belt, and may have been sexually assaulted. His mother was not home that often, and he was forced to sit outside on the stoop so that his grandmother, that also lived with them, could sell drugs. His mother was uneducated and supported the family with her public assistance grant. He has never met his father, and his uncles are in jail. His father was convicted of robbery and drug charges but Eric was told that he was shot to death in an attempted robbery. He dreams of one day avenging his father's death and acts it out when he plays alone. He has a history of terrorizing animals and killed the family cat. He also did poorly in school, being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. He is constantly involved in fights and has no companions. When home, he mostly involved himself in action movies and cartoons. Eric b efriends a boy who lived next door to him. One day he steals the boys bicycle and when the family comes to claim it, Eric threate ns the boy by saying that he was going to kill his baby brother. A few weeks later, Eric broke into the apartment and assaulted the baby, beating him nearly to death.

According to Eric Erikson, a student of Freud, his psychosocial theory states that you have to move through stages of development to have your needs met. One needs to be psychologically ready to move on to the next stage. This depends on the social environment they are in Eric, being six years old ...

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...ctly related to violence, may have attributed to frustration, which in turn could lead to anger and aggressive behavior. Also, lack of socialization leads to deviant behavior and juvenile delinquency.

Eric is now in a facility for troubled children. If he were to be returned to the same environment that he was taken from, I feel that he would revert back after a period of time. He is still young and very impressionable. His surrounding is still responsible for much of his behavior. Even if he was much better in the facility, I think he would get back his old habits, and become violent and introverted. I strongly feel that he should not be returned to his home. If he was taken from the facility and put into a good home, I think that he would have a good chance of becoming a more social person and have the possibility of leading a normal, healthy life.