Case Studies of the Psychological World

Case study: Rat Man  By: Sigmund Freud        Ernst Lanzer, born in Vienna in 1878 suffered from "obsessional neurosis," an illness that featured having thoughts so persistent and uncomfortable that he would cut his own throat with a razor just to get them to stop. After suffering for it throughout his childhood, in 1907 he went to visit Freud. Lanzer noted that hydrotherapy, or therapy using bathing helped relieve the symptoms, but he also noted that a relationship with someone at the bath house could've been what actually helped. Rat Man claimed to have obsessive thoughts randomly and wouldn't go away unless he harmed himself to distract the mind. These thoughts usually involving harm to those close to him.             The name Rat man came from a particular experience Lanzer described which perfectly illustrates his condition. While serving in the military he learned of a form of punishment involving putting a bucket...

       Milgram Shock Obedience Experiment The Milgram shock experiment, conducted by Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist was an obedience test evaluating how people respond to authority figures. The test would determine how ridiculous of a request the common people would be willing to do in fear of authority. The idea was inspired by the Nazi soldiers of WWII following orders from the higher ups and whether they can truly be the ones to blame.        The procedure was quite simple; two male participants would be selected, one would be in a room with switches that activated a generator at varying voltage levels, and the other would always be an associate of Milgram (Mr. Wallace) strapped to the electric chair with generator receiving the "shock." The varying levels of voltage ranged from 15 volts (low) to 450 volts (fatal). The participants would draw straws to determine who would be the learner and who was the teacher, with the learner ...

The Mysterious Case of Phineas Gage It was September 13, 1848, Phineas Gage was a 25-year-old railroad crew member working in Cavendish, Vermont. He was using a 43 inch long and 1.25-inch wide iron tamping rod and explosive powder in an attempt to level out the ground. Unlucky for Phineas, when the rod made contact with the explosive powder an explosion was triggered and the rod was shot through his left cheekbone, through his entire brain and out his skull supposedly landing an astonishing eighty feet away. One may call this a typical tragedy in the already known to be dangerous, the railroad industry, however, Phineas Gage was not killed. As a matter of fact, he walked on his own two feet to be taken to a doctor and was able to tell the doctor what had happened! After witnessing Phineas Gage's brain leaking out of his skull while vomiting, Dr. Williams referred him to Dr. John Martyn harlow. Where there he spent nearly two weeks after developing an infection, func...

Response to "Schizophrenia in Identical Twins" In high school I took a psychology 101 class and I had a phenomenal teacher with a passion for psychology. I enjoyed that class a lot and one of my favorite things to do we’re to read the psychiatric case studies. The case studies were always extremely interesting and show you the lengths the human mind can reach. So I decided to dedicate my blog to story telling from the psychological world.   Schizophrenia is a predominantly recessive gene; only affecting under 1% of the general population. The risk rises to 6.5% for genetically related members of a family. However, in the case of identical twins, where the genetic make ups are the same, the risk shoots up to upwards of 40%. After analysis of cases of schizophrenia in identical and fraternal twins, the risk was estimated to be about 50% in identical twins. The risk for other twins being 10-19%, an astonishing 30% difference. The ...