The Waldorf Family
Meet the Family:
Blair Waldorf
Blair is the daughter of Eleanor and Harold Waldorf. She is known to be the “Queen B” of where she resides in the Upper East Side. She attends a private school known as Constance Billard St. Jude, where wealthy and known families send their children for a top tier education. Throughout her teenage years, Blair struggles with finding herself, and has a habit of masking her tribulations with a tough exterior. She does not have a pleasant demeanor, and most of her classmates are fearful of her due to her manipulative and calculated behavior. Blair also silently suffers with mental health issues such as depression, and shows true character traits of being a narcissist. In order to deal with abandonment issues from both of her parents and close friends, she has developed an eating disorder known as Bulimia Nervosa. Blair is constantly obsessing over her weight and her appearance, and how others perceive her. She puts up a front, but deep down she is struggling from multiple psychological issues. She becomes defensive and denies that anything is wrong when approached by family or friends, most likely because she does not trust anybody which stems from abandonment. She will do what it takes to get what she wants, and can come off as quite the perfectionist. Unfortunately this also means that Blair is willing to step on toes or hurt people, and go to great lengths to get what she wants in life. She schemes and plots without considering the outcome or hurt she may cause to others.
Eleanor Waldorf is the mother of Blair. She is a successful fashion designer and CEO of Waldorf Designs. She takes role of the “breadwinner” of her family. She is divorced from Blair’s biological father, Harold Waldorf, and has been the main caretaker for Blaire while growing up. Often times her and Blair struggle to understand each other, and at times Blair is “too emotional” for Eleanor. Although Eleanor has always been physically present, she is absent minded when it comes to Blair’s emotional wants and needs.
Eleanors tendencies to be emotionally cut off is something that her daughter Blair really struggles with, because it makes her feel like she cannot express her feelings to her mother. Although Eleanor is not as much as a perfectionist as Blair, she does care about status and has a desire for materialistic items. She feels that showering Blair with these type of items will make up for not always being emotionally present.
Eleanor Waldorf
Harold Waldorf is the father of Blair Waldorf, and the ex husband of Eleanor Waldorf. He attended Yale University and later became a successful lawyer. He spends most of his time living in France, but occasionally comes to the city in order to visit his daughter, Blair. Harold was struggling with his own identification, and eventually he filed for divorce from his wife Eleanor and ended up leaving her for a male partner. Harold, and his partner Roman have made a life for themselves living on a vineyard style home in France, where they live with their two adopted children from cambodia. Harold’s presence is few and far in between, and his absence in his daughter’s life caused her to develop abandonment issues.
Harold Waldorf
Bulimia Nervosa
It is apparent that Blair suffers from mental health issues. Blair shares her struggles with her closest friend Serena, and expresses to her that she has been taking an antidepressant medication known as Lexapro. This is a part of a drug class known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). Physicians and psychiatrist will often prescribe this to those who suffer with both depression and eating disorders because it helps them take more control of their thoughts and feelings and decrease the urge to binge purge. Blair’s parents have unknowingly caused her to develop abandonment issues growing up. From her dad leaving her and her mom behind so abruptly to go live with his male partner in France, to her mom being emotionally unavailable and never having deep conversations with Blair about feelings she held inside due to the split of her parents. Blair’s mother, Eleanor, thought she was protecting Blair by never speaking of the situation, yet she was making it worse by not allowing Blair to hurt and grieve. Expressing these emotions to her mother was very difficult for her. Bulimia Nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness that typically develops during years of adolescence, it is characterized by recurrent episodes of eating an objectively large amount of food, with an associated loss of control, as well as inappropriate compensatory behavior such as self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or excessive exercise and overvaluation of shape and weight (Hail, 2018). One of Blair’s main characteristics is that she is a perfectionist. She most definitely worries about her appearance and has shown worrisome behavior such as self-induced vomiting, taking laxatives, and constantly focuses on her flaws rather than her strengths. He body image and low self-esteem continuously haunt her. On the outside she appears to have it together physically, but inside and mentally, Blair is facing major personal battles.
Culture and Religion
The Waldorf family does not seem to identify with any specific religion. They are a wealthy family from the Upper East Side, so big dinners and presentations are important to them. They enjoy the traditional side of family culture which includes hosting and entertaining friends and family, gathering in large groups, and some would say they like to “put on a show” for others. They do their best to make their guest feel welcomed and catered to, with a lavish lifestyle that includes gourmet meals, butlers, and stunning decor and presentations. Blair’s mother however, did convert to Judaism after marrying her Fiance named Cyrus Rose. Blair was supportive of her moms conversion, but did not personally convert herself. Blair’s father does not seem to identify with any type of religion, nor does his life partner Roman.
Strengths:
Strengths and Weaknesses
The Waldorf family is very loyal to those that they consider close to them, and they will go to great lengths to protect the people they love. They show determination and have a powerful work ethic, and the desire to better themselves educationally and financially. They also show a sense of integrity and honesty, even if they know someone’s feelings might be hurt, they would rather be truthful with their words. Blair specifically has a tough exterior to her, but she does love hard and tries to see the good in people, even if they have wronged her in the past. Blair is very supportive of her friends, and has also been willing to help them in financial situations if she sees the person is struggling. She has offered her home as a place to stay, and her money as well.
The main weakness the Waldorf family faces is, lack of communication and being emotionally unavailable. Although Blair is dealing with psychological issues, she does not know ways to communicate with her mom about these issues, mainly because her mom has the tendency to “sweep things under the rug”. Eleanor would rather ignore the red flags then face them head on, and this causes her daughter to feel like she has no one to turn to. Harold’s absence has caused Blair to grow up without a father figure and this has not only had an effect on Blair’s mental health, but it has also trickled into her relationships with men and going after partners who may not have her best interest, or that have abusive traits. Instead of knowing her worth, Blair tends to stick around possibly because she did not have a male figure in her life to show her how a man should treat her and the qualities to look for in a partner.
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
Although Eleanor struggles with allowing Blair to express her emotions, there are also times where she is a good listener. Blair expresses to her mom the issues she is dealing with in her relationship with her lover, Chuck Bass. Chuck knows that Blair has a big heart for him, and he makes her feel weak when she has worked so hard to come off as strong. However, Eleanor is expressing to her that in life you need to experience moments of weakness in order to grow and ultimately become a stronger individual.
Blair and Eleanor have spent many moments together, and through these moments they have witnessed the good times and the bad times with each other. They are all each other has, and they are a household of a single mom and child. In this moment Blair and Eleanor simply enjoy the presence of only each other on a quiet Thanksgiving evening. They happily enjoy each others company side by side in silence, knowing they will be okay even if it is just them two at the end of the day.
Family Systems Theory
The approach to Family Systems Theory views the family as an emotional unit and allows nurses to understand and assess families as an organized whole and/or as individuals within family units who form an interactive and interdependent system (Hanson & Kaakinen, 2005). How a person fits into his or her family structure influences his or her functioning, relational patterns, and what type of family he or she will carry forward into the next generation. There are four concepts involved in this theory which include the following: All parts of the system are interconnected, the whole is more than the sum of its parts, all systems have some form of boundaries or borders between the system and its environment, and lastly, systems can be further organized into subsystems (Hanson & Kaakinen, 2005). This theory puts emphasis on the significance of such support within a family, since significant change or event in one family member affects all other family members. In relation to the Waldorf family, it is possible that Blair’s Bulimia Nervosa and depression, can influence the family that she may have of her own one day. Her mother’s ignorance and stonewalling of Blair’s abandonment issues can cause Blair to have wounds that will never heal. Mental health and psychological issues can be easily passed down to your children, and they may see this behavior as normal. Blair’s only way of gaining a sense of control over her life is by binging and purging and perfecting her image that she upholds to such a high standard. With communication and opening up to her mother, Blair finally decides to face the facts and not be fearful to express her emotions to her mother and father and how their divorce negatively affected her mental health. This allows for all of them to be on the same page, and leads to growth, change, and a newfound strength in communication skills within their family. Over time we see how this allows Blair to have a more positive outlook on herself, her body image, her coping skills, and her future. Through expression of words she was able to release what she felt was holding her back for so long, and both Eleanor and Harold were understanding of Blair’s feelings. Now instead of Blair feeling alone in her thoughts, she is more comfortable with her parents and they are seen as more of a unit, leading to more efficient coping skills that have made a positive impact on all of their lives.
Interventions:
1. Use verbal and nonverbal therapeutic communication approaches including empathy, active listening, and confrontation to encourage the client and family to express emotions such as sadness, guilt, and anger (within appropriate limits); verbalize fears and concerns; and set goals (Ackley et al, 2020).
2. Observe for contributing factors of ineffective coping such as poor self-concept, grief, lack of problem solving skills, lack of support, recent change in life situation, maturational or situational crises (Ackley et al, 2020).
3. Provide opportunities for the client to discuss the meaning the situation might have for the client (Ackley et al, 2020).
Outcomes:
1. Through communication skills the family will Client will display improved ability to make decisions, problem-solve, empathize with one another and confidently determine their stressors, and how to cope with them.
2. The family will report increase in psychological discomfort and seek help from a health care professional as appropriate in order to educate themselves on proper coping skills
3. The family will be able to identify the reasoning behind their illness, what it means to them, and avoid triggers that may have a negative affect.
References:
Ackley, B. J., Ladwig, G. B., & Makic, M. B. F. (2017). Nursing diagnosis handbook: an evidence-based guide to planning care.
Eleventh edition. St. Louis, Missouri, Elsevier.
Hail, L., & Le Grange, D. (2018). Bulimia nervosa in adolescents: prevalence and treatment challenges. Adolescent health, medicine and therapeutics, 9, 11–16. https://doi.org/10.2147/AHMT.S135326
Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Hanson, S. M., & Gedaly-Duff, V. (2015). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice and research (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davies Company. Milberg, A., Liljeroos, M., Wåhlberg, R., & Krevers, B. (2020). Sense of support within the family: a cross-sectional study of family members in palliative home care. BMC palliative care, 19(1), 120. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-020-00623-z
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