Crisis Theory

By
Ivor Browne
 Crisis Definitions
• A Crisis may be viewed as • W Thomas(1909): described
Crisis as a threat, a challenge, a
the transitional period strain on the intention, a call to
presenting an individual new action. Yet it need not
always be acute or extreme. Of
with, on the one hand, an course a crisis may be so serious
opportunity for as to kill the organism or destroy
personality growth or the group, or it may result in
failure or deterioration. But
maturation and, on the Crisis is not to be regarded as
other, a risk of adverse habitually violent. It is simply a
affect with increased disturbance of habit and may be
no more than an incident, a
vulnerability to stimulation, a suggestion.
subsequent stress.
 Crisis Definitions
• Erikson(1965): Viewed • Gerald Caplan: Refers to
personality development Crisis as ‘an upset in the
as a succession of steady state’ A crisis is
differentiated phases, each provoked when an
individual, faced with an
qualitatively different obstacle to important life
from its predecessor. goals, finds that it is for
Between one phase and the time being
the next are periods insurmountable through
characterised by cognitive the utilisation of
and affective upset. customary methods of
problem solving
 Accidental Crises
• Traumatic events which might or might not
happen at a given time. These could either
be major catastrophes such as earthquakes,
floods, etc., which could affect a whole
section of society. Or individual crises like
a child losing its mother at an early age,
even the loss of a job or a broken
relationship, or any other sudden tragic
event.
 Developmental Crises
• Erikson calls these: ‘developmental crises’ as
distinct from ‘accidental crises’ associated with
various life hazards:
• Events such as birth, which is a crisis both for the
mother and the infant, the onset of puberty and
adolescence, marriage, the menopause, and so on as
we progress through the biological stages of life.
These differ from “accidental crisis” in that they
necessarily occur at a given point in development
and everyone has to pass through them.
 Socio-cultural Crises
• These are situations like facing the first day at
school, the Leaving Certificate, or marriage.
• Such situations are not part of our biological
development, yet, we have structured our society so
that, unless these hurdles are overcome, our future is
severely curtailed.
• Thus we have institutionalised certain forms of crisis
that, unless successfully dealt with, can have very
deleterious effects.
.
 A Turning Point
– . A major crisis can often represent a turning
point in a person’s life. It is a hurdle, that has
to be surmounted if the person is to continue
on satisfactorily through life. If a crisis can
be handled successfully then the person will
be more mature as a result. But if it cannot be
overcome then some maladaptive pathway is
likely to develop and this often signals the
onset of what later becomes a formal mental
illness.
Two Main forms of Crisis which
require a different Response
- The type of crisis - The other form is one
involved in facing an which involves hurt or loss,
examination, tackling a such as the death of
new job, or the struggle someone close to us, or to
in late adolescence to suffer rape or sexual abuse.
leave one’s family of
- In these situations the
origin and become
independent. response required, is to
‘feel’ the pain and work
- This kind of crisis through emotion which is
demands action,, having appropriate to the situation
the courage to face the
and in this way resolve it
situation and overcome
it.
Awareness of the significance of
Life Crises
• Until I went to the States in 1960 and was
exposed to these ideas, there was no
awareness in Ireland or Britain of the
significance of life crises. People were
simply diagnosed as suffering from
endogenous depression or schizophrenia
Etc., with no sense of how these related to
the crises that they had encountered, or how
these had developed over time.
 Significance of Life Crises
(cont.)
- Now some 40 years later ‘crisis intervention’ is
generally accepted. But its relation to development
of mental illness later is still not well understood.
- Now, in major catastrophes like an air disaster or a
terrorist bomb, there is often an exaggerated
response. Droves of crisis counsellors descend on
the scene when most people are in a state of shock
and not in any sense ready to deal with the
emotional effects of the trauma.
 Intervention when the Time is
Right
• Later, when the time is right, and they feel safe enough
to be able to emotionally react, crisis intervention can
begin and they can be helped to integrate the pain and
anguish surrounding what happened.
• Even so psychiatric diagnosis is still treated as
something unrelated to environmental adaptation, or to
the developmental history of the person, and past
crises and traumas are ignored. It is as if these so-
called illnesses existed outside of time, as some kind
of rarefied independent entities
 Determinism
• The traditional view was that if all the
influences, genetic and developmental that
went to form the person entering
adolescence, could be known, then one
could say with certainty how he would
react. However, because it is never possible
to know all of these influences fully we
could not make such deterministic
predictions.
 Indeterminism
• Over the past 50 years research by Prigogine and others
has demonstrated unequivocally that even if we knew
all of the inputs and influences playing on an
adolescent, we would still not be able to say with
certainty how the situation would evolve.
• There is a fundamental indeterminacy in any complex
system because the essential ‘cause‘of how a living
system will behave, lies within that system itself.
Although it is undoubtedly influenced by its past
history, once it reaches a crisis point, no one can say
with certainty how it will behave.
Indeterminism
 Phases of a Crisis
• Phase 1: Initial rise in tension from the impact of the
stimulus calls forth habitual problem solving
responses.
• Phase 2: Lack of success and continuation of stimulus
is associated with increasing upset and ineffectuality.
• Phase 3:Further rise in tension acts as a powerful
internal stimulus and calls out emergency problem
solving mechanisms - novel methods to attack the
problem, trial and error, and attempts to define the
problem in a new way.
 Phases of a crisis (cont.)
• Phase 4: As tension mounts beyond a further
threshold, its burden increases to breaking
point.
• To avoid major disorganisation the person
employs restitutive methods to reduce anxiety
and opens up maladaptive pathways.
• These can lead eventually to the development
of various psychiatric syndromes.
Crisis Theory

By Ivor Browne
 Crisis Intervention
• 1. Family, friends or neighbours may
encourage adaptive responses, but in other
instances may reinforce maladaptive
responses; e.g. in the denial of grief.
• 2. A person may turn for help to front-line
professionals in the community, i.e. clergy,
general practitioners, police, public health
nurses, solicitors, etc.
 Intervention (cont.)
• 3. During a crisis, an individual experiences a
heightened desire for help, and the signs of
distress evoke a helping response from those
around, which seems like a primitive biosocial
reaction.
• 4. During a crisis a person is more susceptible to
influence by others. When the forces are
teetering in the balance, a relatively minor
intervention may weigh them down to one side or
the other.
 Crisis Intervention (cont.)
• 5. Direct Psychiatric intervention, but this is
rare. Psychiatrists could be more effective
by working through other professionals.
This could be an effective use of their time,
enabling them to reach people closer to the
original crisis, rather than when illnesses
have become fully defined and are
relatively chronic. Unfortunately in the
present system this seldom happens.
 Outcome of a Life Crisis
• Will depend on: 1) Whether there were similar
events previously in a person’s life history, which
remained unresolved. e.g. where one is faced with
the death of a loved one, was there an earlier death
which was never healed. This is why to work
through a life crisis is of such key importance
because, not only will the current situation be
resolved, but any past traumatic events of a similar
nature will also be dealt with.
 Crisis outcome (cont.)
2) The culture and family background will also
effect the outcome of a life crisis. If a person
comes from a background which tends to deny
expression of emotion, this will affect their
capacity to feel the pain necessary to resolve the
situation.
3) Family advice can be helpful or destructive
depending on whether it helps a person to fully
experience what has happened, or enables them to
deny the emotional implications of the crisis.
 Crisis - Growth or failure
Not a negative phenomenon, it can be just
as much an opportunity for personality
growth and development. The outcome
of a crisis therefore depends on how it is
handled and whether the person manages
to deal with it effectively. Indeed, if we
did not have to face the stress of life
crises, we would not develop at all.