Claudio's Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

This study diagnoses Claudio with post-traumatic stress syndrome. The treatments recommended would be long term counseling to help him overcome his painful memories and medication to help with his depression as time goes on.

Abstract

After interviewing many of Claudio’s friends, including Benedick, I learned that Claudio is very young and immature. He seems to be starry eyed and falls in love with Hero after meeting her only once. I also learned from a messenger that he fought well in battle. While examining Claudio’s behavior after the event that Don John and others attempted, and almost succeeded in destroying his relationship with Hero, by causing conflict and spreading rumors about her being unfaithful, my research on ProQuest lead me to diagnose him with post-traumatic stress syndrome. He is also devastated when he thinks that Hero is dead. Post-traumatic stress syndrome is a type of a mental health condition triggered by experiencing a painful event. The treatments recommended would be long term counseling to help him overcome his painful memories and medication to help with his depression.

A Qualitative study of Claudio

Review of Claudio

This paper shows that Claudio is immature, sensitive as he tries to seek support from others in finding love. His immaturity shows when he is teasing Benedick about his love for Beatrice. (Act 3 scenes i-ii) The classic tale follows romance of two characters Claudio and Hero as well as Don Pedro and Beatrice. Eventually, people especially Don John, begin to be jealous of Claudio and make plans to set him up for failure by making his soon to be wife appear to be unfaithful. (Act 3 scene ii) They end up succeeding in this and Claudio takes the fall and becomes devastated by all the drama he is set up to be involved in. Upon his wedding, he denies Hero because of all the rumors that he assumed to be true (Partly because of his immaturity) calling her names and expressing his resentment toward her. In this Quote “O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been If half thy outward graces had been placed About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart! But fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell Thou pure impiety and impious purity. For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love, And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, And never shall it more be gracious”. (IV.i.98–106) It appears that Claudio has believed the rumor and is showing anger towards Hero. Throwing her back to Leonato, her father and venting his feelings that she is no longer a virgin and therefore her purity and virtuousness, has gone before marriage.

Method

Participant

Claudio is one of the main characters of the play Much Ado About Nothing. He’s a very sympathetic male character and even though his age is undefined his actions show that he is very young and immature. He lived in Messina, Italy in 1993. He’s a young soldier that recently returns to Messina from war and falls in love with Hero. Our care team thought that being in war and surviving would make him a man but it certainly didn’t as seen by his actions and emotions. (He cries when he hears how much he’s praised and Leonato wipes away his tears.) It’s also true that Claudio wears his emotions on his sleeve. When he loves Hero he can’t think of anyone else but her, and when he thinks that she has been unfaithful, he is furious. When Claudio thinks that Hero is dead, he is devastated. It is this devastation that leads our team to determine that Claudio is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Measure

With this diagnosis our care team has decided to set up a treatment plan for Claudio. Most post-traumatic stress syndrome patients have difficulty dealing with depression and anxiety. Until Claudio realizes that Hero is not dead, he will grieve. The plan is to get Claudio into psychotherapy (talk therapy) and he also needs to take Paroxetine twice a day for 6 weeks. Paroxetine is an antidepressant drug that will help with his anxiety over learning of Hero’s death.

Procedure

As a psychologist I will meet with Claudio twice a week to discusses his grief over the death of Hero. The Paroxetine will help with his anxiety and depression. However, our care team learns that Claudio is willing to get married to someone that looks just like Hero. This once again shows his immaturity. That is evidence that he has some growing up to do. Claudio’s immaturity only adds to the stress he is dealing with. It seems to the team that if Claudio were to “grow up” a little he would not be so depressed.

Throughout my sessions with Claudio it becomes evident that his diagnosis involves not only post-traumatic stress, but that he has to learn who his friends really are and whom to trust. His decisions are based on emotions rather than logic.

Results

Most people associate PTSD with battle-scarred soldiers and military combat which is the most common cause in men, but any seemingly life-threatening event, or series of events that overwhelms you with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness can trigger PTSD. especially if the event feels unpredictable and uncontrollable. (Smith, 2015)

Claudio fought in combat and most likely had experiences that triggered acute PTSD. His thinking that Hero was dead caused him to become depressed.( Newlin, 2010 p.16) Even though his PTSD lasted only until he was going to get married, he still dealt with depression and anxiety.

Throughout Claudio’s treatment, it becomes evident that his friends play an important role in his life. When I interviewed his friends, Benedick and Don Pedro, I learned that they were probably a leading cause to his PTSD. The drama is caused by other people who made Hero look bad. Claudio is too immature to decide for himself that the talk about Hero’s unfaithfulness is just rumors. He believes his friends. He becomes heartbroken and is distressed to think that Hero is not a virgin. It’s no wonder that he has PTSD.

Discussion

Even though Claudio is very immature, he displays symptoms of acute PTSD which includes depression and anxiety. If he doesn't receive psychoanalysis and take his medication twice a week. He will face his problems for ever. Later on it is discovered that Hero isn't really dead and his grief turned into excitement. It is to be noted that this diagnosis was made before Claudio discovered that Hero was not dead and the team was dealing with his symptoms that were a result of his grief and immaturity. The combat added to his symptoms. Perhaps if Claudio did not suffer from depression and anxiety after the war and after he learned of Hero’s supposedly unfaithfulness, the diagnosis would have been different. The team and I knew of his symptoms and what had happened at his “wedding” and afterwards and that information is what led us to the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

References

Traiger, L. (2005, Oct 21). 'Much ado' about world war II; "much ado about nothing" through

nov. 27 folger theatre 202-544-7077. The Washington Post Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/409897405?accountid=36202

Much Ado about Nothing. (2007). In A. M. Hacht (Ed.), Shakespeare for Students (2nd ed., Vol.

2, pp. 614-648). Detroit: Gale.

Tsuang, M.T., Tohen, M., & Jones, P. (Eds.). (2011). WPA Series in Evidence and Experience in

Psychiatry, Volume 24 : Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Somerset, NJ, USA: JohnWiley&Sons. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Pole, N. (2006). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In Y. Jackson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of

Multicultural Psychology (pp. 359-367). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference.

Newlin, N. (Ed.). (2010). Much Ado About Nothing. New York, NY, USA: Nicolo Whimsey

Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. Last updated: August 2015