The Case of Will Hunting: Psychological Reasons for His Actions

Demographic/ Identifying information: Twenty-year-old Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, lives by himself in a small apartment in the poor South Boston neighborhood; differed from his delinquent friends is his extraordinary intelligent, especially in the math field.

Reason for Referral: Will Hunting almost lost control of his anger and assaulted a police officer as he tried to stop him from punching Bobby Champa, client’s kindergarten bully. Will harbors maladaptive behaviors toward his perspective in life, jeopardizing himself to almost end up in jail.

He was referred by Professor Lambeau who discovered his extraordinary intelligence and he would want someone to help Will make use of his talent instead of going to jail.

Background Information: Mr. Hunting was an orphan who suffered a lot of abuse in his foster families. For instance, he recalled of his experience with being stabbed by his foster father when he was young. Suffering from the abandonment from his foster parents, he develops his skepticism towards people, and scared that people he cares would eventually leave him.

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Being left at such a young age had affected Will’s self-esteem, he believes that there is something wrong with him that people would leave him; therefore, he only hangs out with his delinquent friends, who are typically less knowledgeable than he is, so he could have some sense of power toward himself. He has a hard time keeping up with jobs because he accepts no one’s rules except his own. He did try to initialize a romantic relationship with Skylar, a Harvard student that he met a bar.

Though after some smooth run, he tried to push her away with the attempt of defense himself from the thought that she would leave him. He spends his time alone focusing his attention to reading books, poems, etc., as his way of coping to his personal distress.

Presenting problem: Mr. Hunting is a very bright talent with many underlined issues that he himself cannot understand. He developed maladaptive ways to avoid seeking out opportunity to fulfill his potential of a brilliant mind. He shows intense anger that he loses control of himself to push people who care for him away from chances of hurting him. His fear of abandonment had lower his self-esteem and increase his guard up, distrusting anyone who he interacts with. Childhood traumas and social failures were internalized into his rigid ways of living to avoid facing the stressors; or talk about his problems altogether.

Clinical description, impressions and observation: Will Hunting isolated himself from interacting with others in the event of his fear of abandonment, he showed more intense emotion toward Skylar with the hope that she’d leave him, so he won’t be hurt when she leaves him later. He declined many jobs with the ideation of fears for his actions affecting others’ lives, reasonings are exaggerated toward future actions that might not happen. Mr. Hunting has the all-or-nothing attitude towards many facets of his life that affect his well-being, social supports and employment. Even though Mr. Hunting reports that he does engage in consuming alcohol, his consumptions are moderate according to social norms when he is out with his friends. He copes with his distress by isolating himself with books, avoid the existence of the stressor altogether or act out his intense emotions toward others to drive away his anxiety.

Diagnosis: Tentative: PTSD and depression. There are many other underlying issues with the client that needs more time for discussion, furthermore information is required to make an exact diagnosis.

Medical History: Nothing Available.

Treatment History: No report of client’s treatment history, nor medications indicated.

Recommended Treatment: Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is recommended to teach client skills and techniques to cope with events of stressors presented. Showing client to notice the pathology of developing avoidant behaviors, then guide client to approach the stressors with more direct and effective way to improve their functioning. Based on report of Mr. Hunting’s lack of parental care, humanistic therapy is strongly recommended to guide him to develop a stronger sense of self, and skills to understand his emotions better. Unconditional acceptance is the key to let client know that he is not alone and what he’s been through is a result of his environment and not his fault.

Conclusion: Due to the deep-rooted issues of abandonment, Will Hunting had developed many rigid maladaptive ways of avoiding facing stressors, creating a destructive view toward himself and the world. His symptoms had shown to match with the diagnosis of PTSD according to the DSM, though current diagnosis is remained to be tentative; more information is required from client to make a more accurate diagnosis. Best suggestion for the tentative diagnosis is humanistic therapy and DBT.