Case Study of John Hinckley

Janeen Tipton

PSY/410

July 22, 2012
Dr. Johnson

Case Study of John Hinckley

In the field of psychology, a science evolved nearly 100 years ago, named Abnormal Psychology. This field addresses those with mental illnesses/disorders with diagnosing, treatment, and other forms of therapies such as behavioral and cognitive therapies. In order to properly diagnose an individual with any form of disorder, if one exists, it is imperative that the client divulge all feelings, behaviors, thoughts, and emotions for a proper diagnosis. There are individuals who are predisposed for certain disorders which are found at an early age, and then there are others that symptoms seem to arise later in life such as in the case of John Hinckley, who also failed at being honest about symptoms, behaviors, thoughts which due to this, proper psychiatric care could not be implemented leading to the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, a former U.S. President. John Hinckley’s Childhood John Hinckley had what is to be considered a normal childhood as that of his peers. By the age of nine years Hinckley and his family had moved twice within the same State; however the second move at nine years of age seemed hard for Hinckley as he lost some of his friends and social status (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009, p. 325). After graduating high school in 1973, he moved again to Colorado only to return in 1974 to attend college. Hinckley only attended college briefly as he struggled for the next six to seven years. Hinckley and Hollywood It was after his repeated attempts at college that he figured out that was not where he wanted to be and moved yet again to Hollywood to pursue another dream of becoming famous in the music industry in 1976. It was here in Hollywood that Hinckley saw a movie called “Taxi Driver” that later would be found to be a source of motivation for his own behavior. Much like the movie he started to exhibit characteristics of the character Travis Bickle played by actor Robert DeNiro. Much like Hinckley Bickle started to have extreme passions and infatuation with Jodie Foster, who played Iris in the movie. The difference was this infatuation becomes real to Hinckley and he set out a plan to win her affection as in the movie DeNiro sets out to kill Foster’s pimp to win the affection of Iris (Foster). After seeing this movie an estimated 15 times and another failed attempt at trying to figure himself out he moved back to Lubbock, Texas in 1977 (PBS, 2010). First Attempt of Winning Affection In 1979, Hinckley made his first attempt at winning Jodie Foster’s affection by beginning to track Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign; however that soon came to a sudden stop when Hinckley was arrested for possession of a firearm in the Nashville airport for which Carter was present for a campaign. It was also during this time that Hinckley’s parents also had their youngest son see a psychiatrist for issues and it was the same psychiatrist that John Hinckley had also seen, John Hopper. Hopper had seen Hinckley and determined that he suffered from mild depression and had John on a regimen of anti-depressants. At this time Hopper did not find any reason to diagnose John with a mental illness; this was due to the fact that John had failed to mention emotions, feelings, thoughts, and other behaviors John Hinckley had exhibited such as the stalking of Carter and the intentions behind such an act. The Chase After being arrested for possession of firearms Hinckley began to go all over the world just to see Foster. He had made contact with Foster but to no avail the feelings were not reciprocated and at this point is when Hinckley felt he needed to make a grandiose movement to gain her affection. It was at this point that Hinckley set a plan forward to assassinate President Ronald Regan in March of 1981. This was the day that Hinckley fired six shots in which four of them made human contact and one of them hit the chest of Regan; however out of all the shots none of them were fatal. Repercussions of such Acts Hinckley was charged with 13 felony criminal charges and the trial lasted seven weeks in which there was much testimony of his sanity. At one point Hinckley’s defense attorneys tried to offer a plea bargain, however the State felt this would not be appropriate in being that an attempted Presidential assassination was one of the charges. Later he was found guilty by reason of insanity and still resides at St. Elizabeth Hospital under the medical professionals and the judge who sentenced Hinckley until these officials no longer feel that he is a threat to society, Jody Foster or self. During the trial and since then there have been statues created and modified regarding the ability to plea reason by insanity (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009, p. 326). Borderline Personality Disorder Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is one such mental illness that is hard to diagnose due to the association with other disorders such as anxiety and bi-polar depression. Typically, according to the DSM- III, when it was first put in the book as a mental disorder, it states that those with BPD have unstable moods, behavior, and relationships (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011, Para. 1). In addressing the disorder it is also imperative to look at all aspects of the illness by addressing the biological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of the disorder.

Biological – BPD
The biological aspects are the fact that this particular illness has the ability to be genetic. A biological component is the “level of heritability” (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2006, p. 6). This a terminology for when there is a strong factor for having biogenetics to the disorder. The difficulty with this is that bi-polar also has the same characteristic as BPD. Children’s risk factors are due to the experiences and situations that a child is subjected to such as predisposed temperaments, traumatic experiences, environmental influences, and those that are around the child at birth. There are certain temperaments that increase a child’s chances of having BPD; Affective Dysregulation, Impulsivity, and Disturbed Attachments (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011).
Emotional – BPD
Individuals with BPD face adversity with emotions in the realm of being easily angered/upset, depressive state, and have reoccurring high anxiety (Gunderson, 2006, p. 6). One of the biggest factors for individuals with BPD is the emotional instability and knowing this one does not know how the individual will respond.
Cognitive – BPD
One of the factors that clinicians, medical doctors, and psychiatrist look at is Theory of Mind when addressing the diagnosing of BPD. Theory of Mind is when an individual realizes one’s beliefs, attitudes, education and understands that others may be different from self (Miller, 2006). When an individual endures trauma it can cause stress factors affecting the Theory of Mind and thus a personality change. The second factor is neuroplasticity, which is disruption in the executive neurocognitive and the memory processes of those with BPD. This affects the frontal lobe of the brain which is responsible for problem solving and controlling thought (Grosjean & Tsai, 2007).
Behaviors – BPD
Behaviors that one exhibits of BPD have a high rate of self injurious behaviors such as injuring self, others, being impulsive, and will react off of their emotions. It has been suggested that those with BPD that do self injurious behaviors will do things such as cut, burn, scratch to the point of lesions is found to be a way for those with BPD to hide feelings such as those from childhood. Those with BPD, who also have an alcohol or drug dependency problem, will increase the risk of suicide (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2009, p.4). Conclusion Hinckley suffered from an illness that went untreated due to his own lack of omission of certain feelings and emotions. In doing so, Hinckley’s mental illness led to the attempted assassination of President Reagan. Borderline Personality Disorder is a disorder that is often misdiagnosed because of the commonality with Anxiety Disorders and Bi-polar Disorders. There are biological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of said illness that need to be addressed in therapy.

References
Grosjean, B., & Tsai, G. E. (2007, March). NMDA neurotransmission as a critical mediator of

borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Science, 32(2), 103-115.

Gunderson, J. G. (2006). A BDF Brief, An Introduction to Borderline Personality Disorder:

Diagnosis, Origins of Course, and Treatment. Retrieved from

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&template=/ContentManagement

/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=82033

Meyer, R., Chapman, L. K., & Weaver, C. M. (2009). Case Studies in Abnormal Behavior. (8th

ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Miller, C. A. (2006, May). Developmental Relationships Between Language and Theory

Of Mind. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, 142-154.

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2009). Borderline Personality Disorder. Retrieved from

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Borderline_Personality_Disorder_%28BPD

%29&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=81017

National Institute of Mental Health. (2011). What is Borderline Personality Disorder. Retrieved

from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder/what-

is-borderline-personality-disorder.shtml

PBS. (2010). Biography: John Hinckley, Jr.. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/reagan-hinckley/