Ben

Ben's mother was a schoolteacher who used to tell him, "Son, you are not so bright. So, you must study five times longer than others to become number one!" He did well in school and is now married and works for a prestigious company, but became depressed when his responsibilities increased as he advanced through company ranks. Ben's wife was frustrated with Ben's lack of energy. He did not share fun time with her but chose to spend weekends in bed.

The graph below shows Ben's symptoms over the first 2 months of therapy.

During the first 2 months of therapy, his symptoms, except for psychosis, grew progressively worse.

The graph below tracks Ben's overall progress over the first 2 months of therapy.

The graph shows how Ben's tracked symptoms relate to his stress levels and the three psychological spheres of self, intimacy, and achievement. Of the five symptoms of stress that Ben rated, only the highest score is rendered as a stress peak in this graph. The scores he gave to the nine elements of each sphere were averaged. The averages were used to graph the intimacy, self, and achievement scores.

To provide a reference point, Ben's maximum pre-treatment experience was recorded as a score of 10 for each sphere. The client's goal in therapy is to reach positive experience levels far beyond those previously reported.


1.Ben's defenses (symptoms) escalated as his intimacy increased during the course of therapy. The symptoms hindered his intimacy experiences from becoming more positive, as if to try to prevent his intimacy from advancing.

2. As his intimacy scores increased, self and achievement scores dropped, reaching a low point on February 23, as if to absorb blunt of defense (symptoms) allowing intimacy to advance.

The graph below tracks Ben's progress over 3 months of therapy.


(Of the five symptoms of stress that Ben rated, only the highest score is rendered as a stress peak in this graph. The scores he gave to the nine elements of each sphere were averaged. The averages were used to graph the intimacy, self, and achievement scores.)

Intimacy scores increased in rapid succession after the breakthrough on February 17. At the end of the 3rd month of therapy, his experiences related to self and achievement spheres recovered as his defense (symptoms) became further exhausted.

The graph below tracks Ben's progress over 5 months of therapy.



(Of the five symptoms of stress that Ben rated, only the highest score is rendered as a stress peak in this graph. The scores he gave to the nine elements of each sphere were averaged. The averages were used to graph the intimacy, self, and achievement scores.)

1.His intimacy continued to rise reaching above 20 during the 4th month provoking another spike of symptoms (defense).

2. His intimacy overcame the defense of 5/4, and rose to 25 during the 5th month provoking a yet another spike of symptoms (defense) on 5/19, after which defense seemed to lose its strength becoming exhausted.

3. His three spheres rose rapidly after defense has become exhausted.

Ben's graph below tracks his progress over the entire 10 months of therapy.



(Of the five symptoms of stress that Ben rated, only the highest score is rendered as a stress peak in this graph. The scores he gave to the nine elements of each sphere were averaged. The averages were used to graph the intimacy, self, and achievement scores.)

Ben has gone through a typical four-stage personality transformation. The 4 stages are listed below:

1. Stage I: Intimacy emerges and stays above self and achievement (1/7-1/30)
2. Stage II: Intimacy advanced ahead of self and achievement (1/31-5/9)
3. Stage III: Self and achievement catch up with Intimacy (5/19-7/18)
4. Stage IV: Three spheres converged and advanced together (7/18-11/9)

The four stages of personality transformation are described in detail at Lifetrack Concepts: Intimacy to Growth

Ben's case is described in Breakthrough Intimacy - Sad to Happy through Closeness by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka

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