Chapter One: Past and Present
What is Psychological Abnormality?
- Clinical Scientists: gather info systematically in order to describe, predict, and explain the phenomena they study
- Clinical Practitioners: detect, assess, and treat abnormal patterns of functioning
- There’s no definition of abnormal behavior that’s accepted by everyone
- Psychological abnormalities are defined by general criteria in society
Deviance, Distress, Dysfunction, and Danger
- Common feature across definitions: the four d’s
- Deviance - going against social norms
- Distress - causes the sufferer distress (subjective) or could cause distress for the people around you
- Dysfunction - interferes with the person’s ability to conduct daily activities in a constructive way
- Dangerous (however, vast majority of ppl with disorder aren’t dangerous)
- Influences:
- Social norms
- Culture
- Biological, economical, societal context
The Elusive Nature of Abnormality
Szasz: mental illness is created by culture to control people
- ex: women and hysteria
- Everything is on a continuum, ‘disorders’ are just variations of genetics
- Called mental illness invalid and a myth
Eccentrics: display abnormalities but don’t follow the four d’s
- Weeks: fifteen dif characteristics in eccentrics
As time passes, the social idea of deviance changes
- ex: tattoos are no longer deviant
What is Treatment?
- Treatment: procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior
- Essential features of all therapy forms:
- Sufferer / Patient
- Trained healer / Therapist
- Therapeutic contacts
How Was Abnormality Viewed and Treated in the Past?
Ancient Views and Treatments
- Prehistoric societies believed that all events around and within them resulted from the actions of spirits - abnormal behavior was caused by evil spirits
- Would drill holes in skulls to exorcize demons: trephination
- Treatment for severe abnormal behavior (hallucinations, melancholia)
- Exorcism: priest would recite prayers and whip / starve the person
Greek and Roman Views and Treatments
Hippocrates thought mental illness meant something was physically wrong
500 BC-500 AD
Abnormal behavior was a disease arising from internal physical problems
Brain pathology resulted from an imbalance of four humors
- Too much yellow vile caused mania
- Too much black vile caused depression
- Blood
- Phlegm
Treatment: quiet life, bleeding, exercise, celibacy, diet
Europe in the Middle Ages: Demonology Returns
500-1350
Related to the catholic church rejecting science and controlling education
Terrible time to live (plagues, wars, etc.), causing abnormal behavior to increase
Treatment: exorcism, death, hospitalization, torture
The Renaissance and the Rise of Asylums
1400-1700
Johann Weyer: mind is as susceptible to sickness as the body
- First physician to specialize in mental illness
- Founder of modern study of psychopathology
Asylums: institutions whose primary purpose was to care for people with mental illness
Once asylums began to overflow, they virtually became prisons for patients
Benjamin Rush: father of psychology in America, believed in moral treatment
Treated patients like humans instead of possessed entities
Downfall of moral treatment: ran out of money, overcrowding, and low recovery rates
The Early Twentieth Century: The Somatogenic and Psychogenic Perspectives
Dual perspectives
Somatogenic Perspective: Abnormal behaviors are rooted in biology (physical causes)
- Emil Kraepelin: Physical things can happen to you to cause mental dysfunction
- ex: fatigue ➝ mental dysfunction
- Developed the first modern system for classifying abnormal behavior
- Biological discoveries that linked the physical and the mental
- Untreated syphilis causes mental disorders
- Some biological claims led to proposals for eugenic sterilization
Psychogenic Perspective: Abnormal behaviors are rooted in psychology
- Freud: psychoanalysis and outpatient/talking therapy
- Hypnotism: changing mental states
- Psychoanalysis: A form of discussion where clinicians help patients gain insight into their unconscious psychological processes
- First signs of outpatient therapy
Today, people are still not very enlightened about mental disorders
Recent Decades and Current Trends
New psychotropic medications discovered in 1950s, led to deinstitutionalization
- Antipsychotic drugs: correct distorted thinking
- Antidepressant drugs
- Anti-anxiety drugs
- Outpatient care
Today: primarily use outpatient care, things are less expensive, insurance covers more, more programs dedicated to specific disorders.
- Looking at social factors
- Promoting mental health
- Looking at kids early
- Positive Psychology: Study and enhancement of positive feelings, traits, abilities, and group-directed virtues
Technology and Mental Health
New triggers and vehicles: people can find become more easily radicalized with groups online
Digital distractions: causes issues with our attention spans
Tele-mental health services and mental health apps
Web-based misinformation