Psychological Disorders An Introduction Psychological Disorder A harmful

Psychological Disorders An Introduction

Psychological Disorder • A “harmful dysfunction” in which behavior is judged to be atypical, disturbing, maladaptive and unjustifiable. What is abnormal, disturbing maladaptive and unjustifiable depends on: • Culture • Time Period • Environmental Conditions • Individual Person

Early Theories • Afflicted people were possessed by evil spirits.

Early Theories • Music or singing was often used to chase away spirits. • In some cases trephening was used: Cutting a hole in the head of the afflicted to let out the evil spirit.

Trephening

Early Theories • Another theory was to make the body extremely uncomfortable.

History of Mental Disorders • In the 1800’s, disturbed people were no longer thought of as madmen, but as mentally ill. They were first put in hospitals. Did this mean better treatment?

Early Mental Hospitals • They were nothing more than barbaric prisons. • The patients were chained and locked away. • Some hospitals even charged admission for the public to see the “crazies”, just like a zoo.

Philippe Pinel • French doctor who was the first to take the chains off and declare that these people are sick and “a cure must be found!!!”

Somatogenic • At this time- it was believed that mental illness had a bodily cause- Somatogenic. General Paresis and Syphilis Example. But Somatogenic could not explain disorders such as hysteria (now called conversion disorder). Many disorders are psychogenic: the origin is psychological, not physical.

Current Perspectives • Medical Perspective: psychological disorders are sicknesses and can be diagnosed, treated and cured.

Current Perspectives • Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective: assumes biological, psychological and sociocultural factors combine to interact causing psychological disorders. Used to be called Diathesis-Stress Model: diathesis meaning predisposition and stress meaning environment.

Classifying Psychological Disorders • DSM-IV: Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: the big book of disorders. Two Major Classifications:

Neurotic Disorders • Distressing but one can still function in society and act rationally

Psychotic Disorders • Person loses contact with reality, experiences distorted perceptions