The essence of the positive core is that a hopeless case is never hopeless. Everyone has a positive energy that can be strengthened. The tricky thing with believing in the positive core is that you don’t get any clear, positive confirmations from the start. You have to rely on yourself totally.
It becomes much easier to feel hope when you have seen someone considered hopeless change thoroughly. It happened to me when I met this client (see “Motivational Work, Part 1: Values and Theory, pages 28 – 29). The experience made a deep impression on me.
The Case Study
The client, who will demonstrate that a hopeless case is never hopeless, was around 40 and generally known as a violent troublemaker. His childhood was a sorry one, for he was abandoned by his parents at an early age and raised in several foster homes. He was sent to a correctional school because of his criminal tendencies, which became more entrenched as he entered adulthood. Moreover, he was also an alcoholic and a drug addict.
The Perpetrator
Furthermore, he was “the bane of the social welfare office”. When he turned up to collect his money, everyone locked themselves in their rooms except the poor terrified official whose duty was to serve him. The client often threatened the office staff, even at knifepoint. It was widely known that he had many convictions for a violent assault on social workers. He was a large brute of a man, and everyone was scared of him. He was considered a hopeless case.
Special Treatment
Moreover, his hostile behavior earned him special treatment; for example, he never had to wait in the waiting room and could talk in person with the senior management whenever he wished. Decisions taken by social welfare secretaries were often changed to his advantage, and everyone bent backward to please him while saying how much they pitied him.
Strengthening of the Positive Core
By way of incredible coincidence, this man was admitted to an institution. Unknowingly, the staff treated him as they would any other inmate. He had to clean and help out in the kitchen like all the others and eventually became part of a community where he was confronted by people who sought to challenge and contain his behavior.
Contact with the Pain
After a treatment period, he connected with his emotional self and ended up crying incessantly for almost a fortnight. After that, he was a new man. The troublemaker in him had gone, allowing him to put his aggression to good use. He was generally a considerable resource for the institution when setting boundaries for other clients. For instance, once, he turned away an armed drug dealer from the center with just some well-chosen words and immanent aggressiveness.
Afterward
After his treatment, he returned to his life of drugs but took them less frequently and was less aggressive. At his request, he eventually received a new place to live far out in the countryside, where he met a socially balanced woman. They moved in together, and he lived a drug and crime-free life until he died of ill health.
Reflections
Everyone considered this client hopeless because of his destructive behavior and background. He had traits that many said made it impossible for him to change. He was too old. His abuse of drugs and alcohol had been going on for many years and must have led to brain damage. Psychiatrists had diagnosed him as a psychopath, meaning he was almost incurable. His behavior was very destructive and hostile.
Believing in the Positive Core
If, on the other hand, you believe that no one is hopeless, there is always the possibility that you may motivate the client, independently of his drug abuse, destructive behavior, and psychiatric diagnoses.