Ken

Ken is a capable and ambitious executive in his 30s. He faced a major career setback for the first time and became suddenly and severely depressed. He made several serious suicide attempts and was admitted to hospital. His therapy focused on making a breakthrough in his intimacy with his wife. The three-way teamwork approach of Lifetrack took advantage of his acute distress.

The graph below tracks Ken's symptoms during the first month of therapy in the hospital.

Three clusters of symptom peaks characterize Ken's first month of therapy in the hospital. The second cluster represents the largest mobilization of defense (symptoms) during this time. The defenses lost strength (energy) throughout the month.

The graph below tracks Ken's overall progress during the first month of therapy in the hospital.

Of the five symptoms of stress that Ken rated, only the highest score is rendered as a stress peak on this graph. The scores Ken 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, Ken maximum pretreatment experiences were each given a score of 10. The client's goal in therapy is to reach experience levels far beyond those previously reported.


1. Within 10 days of therapy initiation, Ken rated intimacy with his wife with a score above 10. After 3 weeks, he rated it as 20, and at the end of the month he gave it a score of 25.
2. His self and achievement spheres bore the brunt of defense (symptoms), as if to sacrifice themselves temporarily in order to help his intimacy to breakthrough. This mechanism allowed intimacy to overcome Ken's defenses (against personality change).
3. His intimacy advanced at a fast rate while self and achievement remained relatively stagnant, widening its lead (stage II of personality transformation).

The graph below tracks Ken's overall progress during 3 months of therapy.



1. Ken's intimacy score reached 40 in 3 months.
2. At 3 months, self and achievement scores caught up with intimacy (stage IV).
3. His severe depression disappeared in 45 days. Ken was discharged after 75 days in the hospital, immediately returning to his old job.

Graph below tracks Ken over 10 months. The last 5 months of follow-up consisted of monthly check-up visits.


Ken immediately returned to his old job, which had been dubbed as "mission impossible" because two of his predecessors had resigned; job stress had triggered Ken's suicide attempts only 3 months earlier. After returning to work, he not only survived but thrived in the job. He was later promoted in recognition of his contribution. The job had not changed, but Ken was no longer the same man. Beyond reaching stage IV, his three spheres continued to advance together outside of therapy. Active therapy ended shortly after he reached Stage IV. Ken continued to attend monthly check-up appointments .

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

The case of Ken and his wife is presented as Mike and Dianne in "Breakthrough Intimacy - Sad to Happy through Closeness". Their dramatic case was analyzed in much greater detail in "Breakthrough Intimacy - Conquering Depression."

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