Analysing Dependent Personality Disorder

Running head: CASE STUDY ON DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
CASE STUDY ON DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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CASE STUDY ON DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
Introduction
The aim of the present case study is to analyse dependent personality disorder. The
analysis would be done on the behavioural characteristics of Carla. Carla is an 18-year-old
American girl studying in a high school. She often exhibits the pattern of a clingy behaviour, she
admits to be dependent on her parents for almost every work that she needs to do. She becomes
confused while taking a decision and always goes back and forth between her options. She
always emphasises on taking advices from her parents and friends for every little and trivial
decisions of hers. She complains that she often feels uncomfortable and helpless when she finds
herself alone. Her parents seem to be overprotective of her, as they do not let her travel on her
own and always drop her off to her school in their car. She always seeks help from her peers for
her assignments. She becomes extremely sensitive if someone criticizes her. The paper therefore,
discusses the diagnosis, the etiology, the social factors that trigger the disorder and the treatment
plan for this disorder.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of any kind of mental disorder is done by referring to the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The latest edition is the fifth edition that is
referred to as the DSM-5 (Morey et al., 2015). There are certain criteria that have to be met
before getting any kind of diagnosis and the symptoms have to be consistent across all life
circumstances. The symptoms mentioned for the case study indicate towards Dependent
Personality Disorder. According to DSM-5, there is only one criteria along with eight
characteristics for diagnosis of this disorder. They are as follows:

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CASE STUDY ON DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
A. The patient feels an excessive and pervasive need for taking their care. They are submissive,
clingy and exhibit a needy behaviour because of their fear of abandonment (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013). These symptoms can be exhibited in different forms.
The first symptom shows that the person suffering from the disorder has difficulty in
making routine decisions without taking any inputs, reassurance and advices from others .In the
present case study too, Carla admits that she gets confused between the options and therefore,
she has to take advice from her parents and friends for every small and big decisions. The second
symptom under this criterion is that the person feels difficulty in starting new assignments
without the help and support from others. Here too, Carla seeks help in her assignments from her
friends and cannot seem to move forward with it without their help. The third symptom describes
that the person transfers his responsibilities to others when he himself should be attending to
them. Carla also exhibits the same symptoms. The fourth symptom describes the fear of
disagreeing in order to avoid risking disapproval from others. Carla is afraid of the criticisms that
she gets and becomes extremely sensitive. The fifth symptom describes the symptom of
excessive need to get support and nurturance from others in a way that they often submit
themselves to the imposition of their decisions. Carla’s parents drop her off at her high school
despite her being old enough to travel on her own and she does not complain about it (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Etiology
This disorder becomes apparent in childhood however, it can be seen in the adolescent
ages as well (Loas, Baelde & Verrier, 2015). The typical behaviour of an adolescent would be to
create resistance for the parental decisions and have an increasing sense of autonomy. However,
if the child shows signs of dependence on their parents, activities like asking them what kind of

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CASE STUDY ON DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
clothes to wear and is unable to make his or her own bed then this could be a sign of the onset of
dependent personality disorder.
Psychoanalytic theory as proposed by Sigmund Freud had stated that there are many
stages during the development of a child that is referred to as the psychosexual developmental
stages (Kline, 2014). The first developmental stage is the oral stage where the child’s major
source of pleasure is the mouth. If the child gets fixated at that stage then he develops a tendency
to become dependent on people for their nurturance and support. However, this theory is not
accepted anymore and many psychologists and the researchers have shifted to various another
theories and causes for development of this disorder.
Though the exact cause are unknown and have not been listed in the DSM-5, it can be
caused due to various combinations of psychological, biological, temperamental and
developmental problems (Livesley &Larstone, 2018). Many researches and studies have shown
that authoritarian or overprotective parenting styles can cause this disorder in a person. In this
style of parenting, the parents have high expectations from their children with low
responsiveness and negative feedback (Uji et al., 2014). Mistakes made by the children tend to
be punished harshly. This can have a mental impact on the child and affect his personality traits.
This leads the child to always wait for approval of their parents and live in a constant fear of
facing criticism from their parents. They are unable to take decisions on their own. Separation
anxiety during childhood can also be another cause for this disorder (Milrod et al., 2014). Certain
biological factors that cause dependent personality disorder is chronic physical illness. The child
is unable to carry out his or her own activities and has to wait for others to do their work for
them always. I had noticed that Carla used to complain about have certain bodily problems and
therefore, she used to ask others to do her work.