Transcript Abnormal Psychology - Western Carolina University

Abnormal Psychology
Dr. David M. McCord
Basic Concepts
History
Introductions
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Major
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Psychopathology
• Psychopathology examines the nature and
development of abnormal
– behavior
– thoughts
– feelings
• Definitions of abnormality vary widely and
may not capture all aspects of
psychopathology
Defining Abnormal Behavior
• Statistical infrequency suggests that rare
behaviors are abnormal
– Normal curve indicates that behaviors are
common while others are rare
• Common behaviors are at middle of normal curve
• Rare behaviors fall at the tails of the curve
• Violation of norms suggests that
abnormality is relative to a cultural/societal
norm
Defining Abnormal Behavior
• Personal distress suggests that behaviors that
are accompanied by distress are abnormal
• Disability/dysfunction argues that impairment of
life function can be a component of abnormal
behavior
• Dangerousness – to oneself or others –
careless, hostile, confused
• Unexpectedness asks whether the responses of
a person to an environmental stressor are
appropriate
Early Views of Psychopathology
• Demonology is the view that abnormal
mental function is due the occupation by
an evil being of the mind of a person
– Treatment requires exorcism
• Somatogenesis is the view that disturbed
body function produces mental
abnormality
• Psychogenesis is the belief that mental
disturbance has psychological origins
Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
• “Father of modern medicine
• Four humours:
– Blood
– Black bile
– Yellow bile
– Phlegm
- changeable temperament
- melancholia
- irascibility, anxiousness
- sluggish, dull
Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
• Three (or four) types of mental disorder:
– Mania
– Melancholia
– Phrenitis
– (Hysteria)
Demonology During the Dark Ages
• The Dark ages were marked by a decline
in Greek and Roman civilizations and by
an increase of influence of churches
• Church authorities came to view witchcraft
as an explanation of abnormality
– Witches were in the league with the Devil
– Torture was required to elicit “confessions” of
witchcraft; death by fire was required to drive
out supposed demons
The Inquisition
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1486 issued the Malleus Maleficarum
Textbook on witchcraft
Guide to identifying witches
Recommended “treatment”
Decline of witchhunts by 1600
Trials stopped in France in 1682
Last execution of witch in Switzerland was
1782
Asylums
• Asylums were created in the 15th century
for the care/treatment of the mentally ill.
– Asylums were meant to be a place of refuge
– Care and treatment within an asylum was not
always humane or effective
• Pinel (1793) advocated for humane
treatment of patients in asylums
– Removed shackles, improved diet, better
treatment
• Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem (1243)
• Lunatic’s Tower (1784)
• 1st US mental asylum in Williamsburg, VA,
in 1773
• Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)
• Moral treatment, Pinel (1745-1826)
– William Tuke (1732-1819)
• Dorothea Dix (1802-1887)
Modern Somatogenesis
• Systems of classification were developed
which argued that mental illness has a
biological cause
– Kraepelin suggested that clusters of
symptoms form a syndrome
– Each syndrome has its own unique cause,
course, symptoms, treatment, and outcome
• Led to focus on physical treatments during
most of 20th century (see video clips #3, #4, #5, #6)
Modern Psychogenesis
• Abnormal functioning is a result of psychological causes
• In France and Austria many patients were experiencing
hysterical states, physical disorders that made no sense
anatomically
• Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) practiced in Vienna
and Paris, “universal magnetic fluid”
• Charcot, Parisian neurologist, got into the hypnosis
game
• Influenced Josef Breuer, and, most significantly,
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis
• The somatogenic/psychogenic dichotomy is still very
much with us today…