Abnormal Psychology

1. Abnormal Psychology Dr. David M. McCord Basic Concepts History

2. Introductions • Name • Hometown • Local residence • Major • Career plans • Something interesting

3. 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

4. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) • “Father of modern medicine • Four humours: • Blood - changeable temperament • Black bile - melancholia • Yellow bile - irascibility, anxiousness • Phlegm - sluggish, dull

9. Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) • Three (or four) types of mental disorder: • Mania • Melancholia • Phrenitis • (Hysteria)

10. 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

11. The Inquisition • 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

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. 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…