THE CASE OF DANIELLE Danielle, who has just turned 26 years old, presented herself to a university-based psychology

THE CASE OF DANIELLE

Danielle, who has just turned 26 years old, presented

herself to a university-based psychology

clinic with complaints of problems with her

work and marriage, as well as just being

generally unhappy. A structured interview and

several psychological tests were administered.

What emerged was a picture of a young woman

who had suffered from a variety of phobias

as well as varying degrees of depression and

anxiety throughout most of her life. Yet, from

most perspectives, she had usually functioned

within the normal range on most dimensions.

She had a normal childhood, and both Danielle

and her parents would have characterized her as

reasonably well adjusted and happy. Her grades

were above average throughout grade school and

high school, and although Danielle struggled

academically in college, she did manage to

graduate with a business degree, with a major

in marketing. She started to work on her MBA

but felt “just burnt out” with school. So she quit

to take a lower-echelon job in the marketing

department of a large firm in a major city about

300 miles from the area where she grew up and

went to college.

Danielle was introduced to her future husband

shortly after moving to that city, and they were

married after a brief but intense courtship of four

months. This intensity waned almost immediately

after the marriage ceremony, and they settled

into a routine marked neither by contentment

nor by obvious problems. They seldom fought

openly, but they developed increasingly “parallel

lives,” wherein interactions (including sexual

ones) were pleasant but minimal.

Embedded in this overall life structure

were the difficulties that had moved Danielle

to come to the clinic. Ever since she had been

little, Danielle had been afraid of snakes and

insects, especially spiders, and from her high

CA S E

S T U DY

school years onward, she became anxious if

closed in for any length of time in a small room

(claustrophobia). She also reported that she

occasionally experienced periods during which

she would feel anxious for no reason that she

could put her finger on (“free-floating anxiety”)

and then, more rarely, would become depressed.

Once, when she was in college, the depression