July 2020 Reich’s Phallic Character: The Paranoid- The Case of Sandra

Sandra, 42, was a highly intelligent wiz with numbers who has excelled in mathematics since she was a youngster. She was accepted into an Ivy League university and ended-up with a lucrative position in a top-tier brokerage firm in Manhattan.  Sandra’s relationship with math had always been straight-forward and involved no interpretation; it was a pure and simple proposition. As long as her mind focused on numbers she managed well.

The problems arose in other areas of her life and there she did not cope effectively. Sandra was known among her work associates to be difficult, and, at times, stridently combative. She misread cues, created “stories” in her head about other people’s trespasses; and was convinced they were calculating ways to undermine her. Frequently, she would provoke others in a misguided attempt to prove that her suspicions were correct. She couldn’t resist setting up others and relishing the sense of vindication.

Paranoid Symptomology

She often squinted her eyes, peering out through tiny slits – a sign of ocular holding or eye armoring. (https://orgonomictherapy.com/2019/04/25/cultivating-clear-eyes/ ). Particularly, at those times her perceptions were compromised as she could not accurately assess reality through her eyes. With an ocular block, one’s vision can be blurred, resulting in less visual acuity and the mobility of the eye is diminished. Sandra’s eyes looked frozen, wide-eyed with alarm and terror. Her eyes also expressed anger as she peered into her alienated landscape.

When her vision and perceptions cleared, she felt embarrassed, regretful and contrite about her suspicious, provocative propensities. It was as if she existed in two states: One in which when focused on numbers, she existed in a safe world with defined parameters that soothed her. The other state was made up of a distorted world of people, a mix of fantasy projections without a base line for clarity.

She had few friends and her social isolation led to fantasies and confused thinking. Sandra was prone to irritability as she had difficulty relaxing, finding ways to enjoy life, or relish simple pleasures. Sandra felt lost and empty when she wasn’t working; her opinion of herself was in the tank, and the harsh thoughts directed towards others turned inward and crushed her. At those times she escaped by making trouble in her neighborhood and provoking others in her Manhattan condo.

Her heightened fear mixed with aggression drove irrational decision-making that led to her marginalization. She had extreme political views based on her paranoid thinking, even entertaining conspiracy theories driven by her exaggerated fears.

“It is important to understand paranoia as an outlook that can be seen subtly or in an exaggerated fashion in many character types. This type does not look internally for the source of his problems but rather looks outside for the cause of his discomfort and discontent…we can say his perception is distorted so he projects his inner distortions onto the world”. (Frisch, 2018, p. 74-75.)

This profile of the Paranoid was inspired by an incident which occurred in May, 2020 in Central Park between a African-American birder and a woman who called the police “because an African-American man was threatening her life”, even though she was the provocateur who had her dog off leash which is illegal in Central Park. Maslin. 2020, May 27: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/nyregion/amy-cooper-christian-central-park-video.html?searchResultPosition=1)

Treatment Plan

Paranoids rarely seek treatment. They don’t trust enough to enter therapy and are usually so compromised that they do not entertain the fact that they have problems. If they do enter therapy it is important to clearly state the issue: In this case, the patient is plagued with paranoia, meaning she does not see clearly; her perceptions are clouded; she misconstrues the intentions of others; is provocative and alienates others.

Once the therapist clearly explains the specifics of the character style, the manic depressive patient learns to recognize these aspects, although it is quite uncomfortable at first to face her challenging issues head-on. It helps the patient trust as the therapist is clear, direct and does not pull-any-punches. In every session paranoid thinking is clarified and confronted. Overtime, as the traumatic history is analyzed and the patient understands her personal trauma and clarity of perception is increased. Bodywork helps to loosen the eyes and reduce the fogginess so the eyes can soften and see and feel the truth rather than sustain fiction. (https://orgonomictherapy.com/2013/08/22/body-armor-ocular/)

References:

Frisch, Patricia R. Whole Therapist, Whole Patient: Integrating Reich, Masterson, and Jung in Modern Psychotherapy. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

Maslin, Sarah. (2020, May 27) The Bird Watcher, That Incident and His Feelings on the Woman’s Fate. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/nyregion/amy-cooper-christian-central-park-video.html?searchResultPosition=1