Modern Family Disorder

The television series, Modern Family follows an extended family and their respective nuclear families to capture the unorthodox nature of contemporary family structures. Included in the familial plot is “Jay Pritcher” and his second wife “Gloria,” Gloria’s son, “Manny,” and “Joe,” Gloria’s and Jay’s son. Jay also has two other adult children from his first marriage, and their lives are interwoven throughout the story; “Claire” who is the oldest is married to “Phil,” together they have three children, “Hailey,” “Alex,” and “Luke.” “Mitchell” is Claire’s younger brother and he recently married his gay partner, “Cameron,” and together they adopted a child from Vietnam, “Lilly.” Alex, Claire and Phil’s middle child is a perfectionist by nature. …show more content…
The criteria set forth by the DSM-IV for obsessive compulsive personality disorder is applicable to Alex is as follows: preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organization, and schedules to the extent where the point of the activity is lost, Alex rigidly adheres to a packed schedule that includes academic enriching activities, and ‘resume building’ undertakings such as serving as president for several honors clubs outside of school and tutoring peers; excessive perfectionist tendencies that are related to work and productivity to the point that it promotes exclusions of other activities and friendships, Alex excessively devotes herself to her academic pursuits to the extent where she does not partake in any activities that are incongruent with scholastic interests including friendships; overly conscientious and inflexible in moral reasoning, Alex’s rigid view of right and wrong is evident in her inflexibility in famial situations that requires a more abstract view of righteousness; is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things, Alex is observed adhering to only one way of doing things, her way; she does not delegate tasks or ask for advice for fear of others potential incompentence. Based on the aforementioned dinformation, Alex …show more content…
Alex displays a clear sense of exaggerated self- importance as related to her academic achievements and intellectual abilities. She also believes that her uniqueness and special abilities can only be understood by those similar to her (i.e. those with genious-like intellect). Interpersonally, Alex makes regular use of her siblings to carry out plans to achieve something of her interest. Alex’s sense of entitlement become apparent at times when she is at odds with her parents, she has on more than more occasion scolded them for not praising her as much as they should. Alex also demonstrates aggorant attitudes and behaviors in her interpersonal relationships. Narcissitic personality disorder was chosen as a differential diagnosis and not as a primary diagnosis because while Alex meets five of the nine crieteria required of a narcisstic personality disorder, she usually does not overestimate her ability to carry out the tasks she takes on. In fact, her habitual undertaking and completion of excessive tasks is fully congruent with that of obsessive compulsive disorder. Another reason as to why narcissitic personality disorder was not selected as the primary diagnosis is because those with narcissitic personality disorder usually have a largely inflated sense of grandiosity, when in reality they are not more or less special than anyone else; however, in the case of Alex, she is a