14. The Compliance Contact Rebus

The Case Study

Grown Up in a Socially Functional Family

Twenty-seven-year-old Naemi is a drug addict and has now been taken into custody on suspicion of dealing. A non-institutional care assistant is assigned to visit Naemi at the police station, and she reads her client’s file before meeting her. Naemi has grown up in a socially functional family, and she has a well-adjusted brother. Naemi had no problems at school and later began working as an elderly care assistant. Shortly after finishing school, Naemi met an older man who used to be a serious addict.

Destructive behavior

They moved in together and had a child but separated after two years, upon which Naemi attempted suicide and started to use drugs. This led to her losing the custody of her child to her former boyfriend. Naemi then moved in with another older drug addict and started using drugs with him. According to the journal, she also got into prostitution.

The Compliance Contact Rebus

Equipped with this brief, the assistant now goes to police custody, where she is met by an apparently lively, bubbly Naemi who says it feels good to use drugs and that she misses her boyfriend.

Generally, life is a ‘blast,’ and she likes it when things happen. Her suicide attempt and drug addiction are temporary glitches with no special reason behind them. This admission confuses the assistant, as her impression of Naemi during their conversation is completely different from that of her journal. Naemi is very convincing in the way she speaks, and the assistant believes what she says.

Reflections

Naemi appears to be positive in her contact. Although there is no open destructiveness, we catch a glimpse of it in Naemi’s denial of her problems while she is sitting in custody awaiting trial. This in itself is a destructive situation that Naemi refuses to acknowledge.

Convincing in What She Says

By trivializing her addiction and suicide attempt, she avoids having to deal with her problems. One feature of conciliatory attitudes is clearly demonstrated: the care assistant finds Naemi convincing in what she says. If she is to solve her client’s contact rebus, she must understand the whole situation (i.e., she is sitting in police custody with a client who has a destructive life situation), and she must consider this concerning what her client says.

Naemi has grown up in an environment in which she has learned how to conduct herself socially. This increases her ability to sound convincing. Naemi adopts the role of victim by not taking advantage of the help offered in this situation. The social worker is tested whether she will adopt the role of indirect aggressor by failing to see her client’s problems.

If she does this and accepts Naemi’s attitude towards herself, she will harm her. Superficially, the contact rebus appears to be positive. As previously mentioned, we see dissonance in the client’s test: her vivaciousness and contentment are incongruous with her life situation. She has a serious drug addiction, has attempted suicide, and taken to prostitution, most definitely has a destructive relationship with her partner, and is now in custody under suspicion of criminality.

Destructiveness turned inwards

A compliance contact rebus turns its destructiveness inwards on the client so that she fails to take care of herself in a constructive way, meaning she is in self-denial. Naemi, for example, demonstrates this by not taking advantage of the treatment that would be made available to her if he more openly demonstrated who he was and what help he needed.

Instead, she creates a false image of herself through self-denial. The inwardly-directed demotivation occurring with a compliance contact rebus may, in a more active stage, increase the risk of a client openly turning it on themselves through acts such as self-mutilation or suicide. That said, the destructiveness of the compliance contact rebus may also be directed outwardly at others. (Motivational Work, Part 1: Values and theory, page 313 – 319)

The Solution of the Compliance Contact Rebus

In common with other latently motivated individuals, Naemi is looking for the parental figures she lacked as a child. She is longing to be accepted and liked for who he is and is looking for a person who values her despite her conciliatory attitude and who is concerned about her excessive compliance.

Naemi achieves this by behaving like a well-adjusted individual. She is looking for a person who can question her compliance and see through it, thus providing her with a positive affirmation for the woman she is. Naemi will feel confident in someone who can question and break down her façade in a kind-hearted way. Naemi’s compliance is thus an indirect plea for help: in other words, her contact rebus. Her well-adjusted behavior is her way of seeking out honest and open communication.

A General Theory

The contact rebus theory is not only useful therapeutically; it is a universally applicable concept of human behavior that lends itself to other contexts of human interaction, for example when lovers bond with each other (Motivational Work, part 1: Values and Theory, pages 349 – 388).