Prince Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender - A PTSD Case Study For this assignment, I chose to analyze Prince Zuko, a character from one of my favorite shows as a teenager, Avatar: The Last Airbender. After examining his personal history, contributing factors, and any symptoms presented during the course of the series, a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) best fits his situation. Furthermore, although this person obviously does not exist, identifying potential treatment options assists in understanding the condition as a whole. In the show, Zuko was born as prince of the Fire Nation, one of four regions identified by which element their residents could “bend.” As an adolescent, he suffered numerous traumatic events that likely …show more content…
Nevertheless, when viewed in conjunction with the other categories of abnormality, Zuko’s mental state clearly remains unhealthy. For example, he rarely experiences positive emotions, maintaining a high level of distress. He even explicitly remarked on his own anhedonia, saying, “I’m never happy” (DiMartino et al., 2008). Dysphoria appears in his insatiable need to find and subdue the Avatar, occupying every minute of his time. This in turn causes dysfunction, disrupting his relationships with the people around him and preventing him from focusing on anything besides his honor. Often, his behavior and thought processes place him in dangerous situations, risking his life over and over in attempts to capture the Avatar. Aside from Zuko’s connections with the 4 D’s of Abnormality, the DSM-V lists the disorder as a direct result of experiencing something traumatic; in the Agni Kai, he received substantial injuries along with a perceived threat of death (American Psychiatric Association,
When considering the 5 D’s of abnormality, he possesses characteristics of them all. For dysfunction, he experiences social dysfunction by being unable to create and maintain relationships. He also experiences emotional dysfunction by having a fear of being alone, bouts of crying, and feelings of low self-worth. Physiological symptoms such as insomnia,
1. Danny Zuko is one of the main characters, but not the protagonist. He is the boyfriend of the protagonist, Sandy Olson. They all attend Rydell High. Zuko is the leader of the T-Birds, the school's greaser gang. I chose him for a charcter because him and Sandy are both the main character, but I don't think he's the protagonist. Therefore, I thought he should've been chosen for this because he is an important character in this film.
...oermann et al, 2005). This has a tendency to lead to an insecure sense of one’s self. (Hoermann et al, 2005) A person with this disorder has a difficult time being reliable. This can be from constant career change, relationships and goals. These essential changes occur without any warning. (Hoermann et al, 2005)
The last and most accurate is histrionic personality disorder (p. 667). Karmen meets the following criteria: uncomfortable when not the center of attention, “inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior” (American Psychological Association, p. 667), shallow emotional expression, attempting to gain appearance through physical appearance, self-dramatization, and considers relationships to be more intimate than they really are. We see this when Karmen begins calling the doctors around her by their first names.
272). Criterion D is identified by two or more of the following: inability to recall significant details of the traumatic event(s), persistent and inflated negative beliefs or presumptions about self, others, or the world (p. 272), constant “distorted” beliefs about the cause or affects of the traumatic events that enable an individual to blame himself/herself or others (p. 272), typical emotional state is negative, lack of interest or participation in significant activities, perpetual difficulty experiencing positive emotions, and feelings of “detachment” from self or others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 272). Antwone’s signs and behaviors are consistent with four of the seven criteria. Antwone refers to himself as a person with problems who is “broken” inside (Black, Washington, 2002). Antwone also reports that he fights because “that’s the only way people will get it” (Black, Washington, 2002).
Cowardice, shell shock, battle fatigue, combat stress reaction (CSR), war neurosis, acute stress reaction, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are merely a few titles describing the extreme psychological changes occurring in battle veterans enduring long periods of service as combat line troops since the advent of long-range artillery and rifle-fire. Native Americans were used and cast aside by a government responsible for taking their tribal lands and requesting of them to serve during World War II by means of the draft. Tayo’s achievement recreated within him a sense of purpose and a new connection with his mother’s people after purging his body of the horrors of war he experienced and by repairing the tear in Ts’its’tsi’nako, Thought-Woman’s web tore by the destruction of the White Man’s conquest and his World War represented by his quest directed by the Shaman Betonie only then will he reconcile his past with the present and open the proverbial doors to his future.
The character I have chosen to analyze having post traumatic stress disorder is Spartacus, who is played by Andy Whitfield on the hit series Spartacus Blood and Sand on Starz. Spartacus Blood and Sand is directed by Grady Hall and Rick Jacobson. Spartacus is a Thracian solider who was punished for his betrayal against the Roman Commander Legatus Claudius Glaber, played by Craig Parker. Spartacus was to be executed in the gladiatorial games and his wife Sura, played by Erin Cummings, was to be sold as a slave. However, Spartacus successfully defended his life by killing four-top notched gladiators in the arena. After his victory he was bought by Baticitus, played by John Hannah. Spartacus was to be a slave trained to be a gladiator in Baticitus’ ludus. When Spartacus began bringing great fortune from his winnings and social advancement to Baticitus’ ludus, he was promised to be reunited with his wife, Sura. After Spartacus became champion of Capua and being undefeated, he came to the realization that Baticitus was not going to keep his promise of reuniting him with his wife because too many victories had passed. Spartacus later found out in a recurrent flashback and current images that Baticitus had Spartacus’ wife Sura, killed. An analysis of Spartacus’ behavior of nightmares, insomnia, and haunting memories reveals that Spartacus has post traumatic stress disorder.
Ronson discovers the DSM textbook, which consists of all of the listed mental disorders. He then went through the list and wondered if he has any of the 374 disorders and if there was any org...
Kagan, however, states that the correlation between brain functioning and disorder is not exactly a straight line, in which it would all depend on the individual’s ability to successfully separate the thoughts and feelings they are experiencing from reality itself, and how well they can overcome the stressors of anxiety. The article goes on to explain Kagans idea that the “persona,” or the outer directed personality as well as the “anima,” an individual’s inner directed thoughts, can cause conflict within an anxious person as one can be controlled while the other cannot. Those who were observed as infants by Kagan were later scanned in an MRI conducted by Dr. Carl Schwartz when they turned 18, and those who were low-reactors as it was observed, had a thinner lining of the prefrontal cortex than those who were high-reactors. The much thicker lining of the cortex of a high-reactive individual supported the fact that the temperament displayed by in these individuals as infants left a mark on those who were “predisposed” to anxiety. Baby 19, however, displayed a much thinner prefrontal cortex despite being high-reactive, in which it was hypothesized that although having a jumpy amygdala she may have lacked a cortex with the capacity to
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), originally associated with combat, has always been around in some shape or form but it was not until 1980 that it was named Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and became an accredited diagnosis (Rothschild). The fact is PTSD is one of many names for an old problem; that war has always had a severe psychological impact on people in immediate and lasting ways. PTSD has a history that is as long and significant as the world’s war history - thousands of years. Although, the diagnosis has not been around for that long, different names and symptoms of PTSD always have been. Some physical symptoms include increased blood pressure, excessive heart rate, rapid breathing, muscle tension, nausea, diarrhea, problems with vision, speech, walking disorders, convulsive vomiting, cardiac palpitations, twitching or spasms, weakness and severe muscular cramps. The individual may also suffer from psychological symptoms, such as violent nightmares, flashbacks, melancholy, disturbed sleep or insomnia, loss of appetite, and anxieties when certain things remind them such as the anniversary date of the event (Peterson, 2009).
Volodymyr Monomakh II was born in 1053. He was the son of Grand Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavych I, also known as Volodymyr The Great, and Irina (8). Irina was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Monomachos, whom Volodymyr Monomakh was named after. Monomakh married the daughter of the English king Harold II, named Gytha, and had one child with her named Mstislav (9).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after a traumatic event (Riley). A more in depth definition of the disorder is given by Doctor’s Nancy Piotrowski and Lillian Range, “A maladaptive condition resulting from exposure to events beyond the realm of normal human experience and characterized by persistent difficulties involving emotional numbing, intense fear, helplessness, horror, re-experiencing of trauma, avoidance, and arousal.” People who suffer from this disease have been a part of or seen an upsetting event that haunts them after the event, and sometimes the rest of their lives. There are nicknames for this disorder such as “shell shock”, “combat neurosis”, and “battle fatigue” (Piotrowski and Range). “Battle fatigue” and “combat neurosis” refer to soldiers who have been overseas and seen disturbing scenes that cause them anxiety they will continue to have when they remember their time spent in war. It is common for a lot of soldiers to be diagnosed with PTSD when returning from battle. Throughout the history of wars American soldiers have been involved in, each war had a different nickname for what is now PTSD (Pitman et al. 769). At first, PTSD was recognized and diagnosed as a personality disorder until after the Vietnam Veterans brought more attention to the disorder, and in 1980 it became a recognized anxiety disorder (Piotrowski and Range). There is not one lone cause of PTSD, and symptoms can vary from hallucinations to detachment of friends and family, making a diagnosis more difficult than normal. To treat and in hopes to prevent those who have this disorder, the doctor may suggest different types of therapy and also prescribe medication to help subside the sympt...
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is defined by our book, Abnormal Psychology, as “an extreme response to a severe stressor, including increased anxiety, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal.” In the diagnosis of PTSD, a person must have experienced an serious trauma; including “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.” In the DSM-5, symptoms for PTSD are grouped in four categories. First being intrusively reexperiencing the traumatic event. The person may have recurring memories of the event and may be intensely upset by reminders of the event. Secondly, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, either internally or externally. Third, signs of mood and cognitive change after the trauma. This includes blaming the self or others for the event and feeling detached from others. The last category is symptoms of increased arousal and reactivity. The person may experience self-destructive behavior and sleep disturbance. The person must have 1 symptom from the first category, 1 from the second, at least 2 from the third, and at least 2 from the fourth. The symptoms began or worsened after the trauma(s) and continued for at least one
According to Psychology in Action, “[r]ather than being fixed categories, both “abnormal” and “normal” behaviors exist along a continuum, and no single criterion is adequate for [i]dentifying all forms of abnormal behavior” (Huffman). There are four criteria used to determine whether behavior is abnormal. These are known as the four D’s. The first is deviance, this means that someones thoughts are different than those in the their culture and/or society. The second is dysfunction, this is when a person’s behavior is interfering with their everyday life and functions. The third is distress, this means that the person has a substantial amount of distress and unhappiness which can lead to risky or immoral actions. The fourth and final D is danger, this is when the person’s actions indicate that they are a danger to themselves and others.
In Things Fall Apart, the reader follows the troubles of the main character Okonkwo, a tragic hero whose flaw includes the fact that "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (2865). For Okonkwo, his father Unoka was the essence of failure and weakness.