THE NATURE AND DYNAMICS OF CRISIS EXPERIENCE

Psychiatrist Gerald Caplan has provided all the helping professions with valuable conceptual
tools for understanding the psychodynamics of crises. In his Principles of Preventive Psychiatry,
he points out that everyone is constantly faced with situations demanding problem-solving
activity. Ordinarily the tension caused by problems is reduced quickly through the use of familiar
skills. A crisis occurs within persons when their usual problem-solving activities are ineffective,
allowing the stress of unmet need to rise unabated. The stress stems from the deprivation of the
satisfaction of some fundamental physical or psychological needs. Caplan delineates four
characteristic phases in the development of a personal crisis:

1. The problem (stimulus) causes tension in the organism that mobilizes the person’s habitual
problem-solving responses.
2. Failure of these responses and the continuing unmet need produce inner disturbances
including feelings of anxiety, confusion, guilt, ineffectuality, and some degree of
disorganization of functioning.
3. When the tension of the seemingly insoluble problem passes a certain threshold, it becomes a
powerful stimulus to the mobilization of additional crisis-meeting resources. The individuals
call on his reserves of strength and of emergency problem-solving mechanisms. A person
uses novel methods to address the problem. He/she may gradually define the problem in a
new way, so that it comes within the range of previous experience. Aspects of the problem
which were neglected may now be brought into awareness, with the consequent linking with
capacities and accessory problem-solving techniques which were previously neglected as
irrelevant. Thus, the problem may be solved or avoided by resignation. Crisis counseling
aims at helping persons in this third stage by encouraging them to mobilize their suppressed
coping resources.
4. If the problem is not resolved, the inner stress of unmet needs mounts until it reaches another
threshold – the breaking point where major personality disorganization (psychological,
psychosomatic, interpersonal or spiritual illness) occurs.

This may be an overlapping of the previous notes where there is an elucidation of two types of
crises. Corresponding with that, to understand the dynamics of crisis I want to explicate Caplan’s
view on two categories of crises: developmental and accidental. He asserts, human growth is the
result of meeting a series of developmental crises successfully. As Erik Erikson shows, the
development of personality occurs through a series of growth stages, each of which has a
challenging task for the ego, and builds on the accomplishment of these tasks in earlier phases.
Transitions between stages are periods of heightened anxiety and crisis when persons are both
pushed forward by inner maturational forces and pulled backwards by the security of the familiar
stage.

Developmental crises are normal in the sense that they happen as an integral part of all or many
people’s growth. Among these are birth, weaning, toilet training, the oedipal conflict, going to
school, adolescence, competing schools, leaving home (western context), entering vocation,
engagement, marriage adjustment (or the adjustment of singlehood), pregnancy, parenthood, the
middle-age crisis, loss of parents, menopause, retirement, death of spouse, death of friends, and
eventually one’s own dying. These stressful experiences are the occasions of crises for an
individual to the extent that they pose problems for which his/her previous coping abilities are
inadequate. Each developmental stage and crisis is the occasion for a variety of caring and
counseling opportunities.

Accidental or situational crises can happen at any age, precipitated by unexpected losses of what
one regards as essential sources of need satisfaction. Precipitating experiences include all the life
events, some of the examples are: Loss of status and respect; an accident or surgical operation;
mental illness or alcoholism; a physical handicap; an unwanted pregnancy; a natural disaster
such as a flood or earthquake; or a massive social calamity such as a war or economic
depression. All these events produce emotionally hazardous situations. A crisis is more than
simply a time of danger, pain, and stress to be endured. It is important for the counselor to see
that it is a turning point, a growth opportunity where persons move toward or away from greater
personality strength and wholeness. This makes crisis counselling a strategic helping
opportunity.
(Note: This study material is an excerpt from Howard Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Care &
Counselling: Resources for the Ministry of Healing and Growth (Nashvillew: Abingdon Press,
1984)