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What is mental illness [Psychological]

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In the United States mostly two types of diagnoses qualify as being serious enough to require state provided mental health services. Psychotic disorders, which is usually schizophrenia, and mood disorders which is usually but not limited to bipolar disorder. Persons with other mental disorders alone usually do not get state provided attention, unless the disorder is comorbid or cooccurring with another disorder. This is often referred to as Seriously Mentally Ill.

  1. Is creative expression really a mental illness?
  2. Mental health matters
  3. Martin Seligman researched Learned_helplessness in dogs, this is now compared to the behavior of humans with psychological disorders.
  4. Abnormal Psychology Wikibook
  5. Topic:Psychopathology
  6. NAMI about Psychological Disorders
  7. Wikipedia on Psychological Disorders
  8. An Article on David Rosenhan
  9. More on Rosenhan on Wikipedia
  10. Biological Prespective
  11. Models of abnormality on Wikipedia
  12. Dr. John Breeding: Are You Normal? A subjective critique on subjective science The work of Dr. John Breeding (an antipsychiatry speaker) must be heavily acknowledged in Recovery Psychology...particularly in this video he discusses how subjective the concept psychological disorders is.

Although most discussion on psychological disorders tends to lean on biological theory, you will find that in every clinical or abnormal psychology textbook, you will find the following criteria for psychological disorders:

  1. Is all abnormal behavior disordered and how do we subjectively define psychological disorder?
  2. Is there a noticeable departure from social norms? See Social Norms
  3. Is there a personal distress and a disturbance in functioning of the individual? See RECOVERY
  4. Is there any maladaptive or troublesome behavior? See Sociological Stressors

The cause of psychological disorders

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The primary concept of positive and negative symptoms in psychological disorders

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  • Positive Symptoms=Behaviors that would be considered abnormal that only exist because of a psychological disorder. This is a present quality of a disorder. (for example hallucinations) Clinical treatment that brings about remission often addressess these symptoms. Clinical treatment may be concerned with how to stop an unwanted behavior in a client, thus treating the client as if the client were the problem.
  • Negative Symptoms=Behaviors that would be considered normal which a person fails to act or engauge in, because of a psychological disorder. This is an absent quality of a disorder. (for example not speaking) Psychiatric Rehabilitation that facilitates recovery would only address these symptoms, although recovery by its definition addressess all symptoms, roles and functioning. Treatment that acknowledges this concept would be concerned with helping a person back in to being a person again, thus acknowledging the person first and the disability as being on a feature of the person, which that person has sought help with.

The Problem of Defining Psychological Disorder

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In science there is the requirement of replication in order to prove the something is valid or true. That means any condition that occurs as a phenomenon can be recreated given the same circumstances. In order to determine that an individual, for an example: one who is uneducated, iliterate, homeless, has no family, was raised on the city streets and was beaten in to prostitution to have a psychological disorder; the individual would have to be compared to a sample population that constitutes a norm. This sample population would be for an example: one hundred individuals who are uneducated, iliterate, homeless, have no family, were raised on the city streets and were beaten in to prostitution, who have similar race, ethnicity, cultural background, of similar age or generation, in a similar city or region of the world. If the one individual deviates in his behavior from the behavior of those in the sample population that represent normal behavior then it may be possible that the individual has a psychological disorder. The Problem of defining psychological disorder in the person described here, is finding the sample population of "normal" to compare to.

Diagnostics

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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

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The DSM or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a publication of the American Psychiatric Association that classifies mental disorders using a multiaxial system. An Axis is a class of information regarding a particular aspect of a persons functioning. The five Axes of the DSM-IV-TR are:

Evaluation, Assessment and Diagnosis

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Trauma Theory

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Trauma theory of psychological disorder emphasizes the effects of psychological trauma, particularly in early development, as the key causal factor in the development of some or many psychological disorders (in addition to post-traumatic stress disorder). It is not uncommon for persons with psychological disorders to also have a history of one form of abuse or another. Although some coincidental factors do show up, no substaintial evidence of trauma is present in every case of a psychological disorder. See Neurotransmitter Stress Disorder which has been proposed as an alternative to the name of the disorder known as schizophrenia comparing it to posttraumatic stress disorder.

Diathesis-stress theory

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The Diathesis stress theory is the most widely accepted theory for understanding the cause of psychological disorders, what was once called the nature versus nurture debate is now considered as the nature through nurture assumption. This is the view that a person would have certain genetic or biological traits which are innate at birth and that these develop according to their natural tendencies, that are then influenced or manipulated by psychosocial factors in ones environment.

Rebutal from a propsychiatry view on antipsychiatry

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This is fairly well thought out rebutal against antipsychiatry. The designer of these videos may not be neccessarily propsychiatry, but rather a critical thinker. Recovery Psychology must remain objective in both point-counterpoint controversies, the only area in which recovery psychology as a discipline can exist with an opinion is to be pro-recovery and pro-science.

The problem with scientific research

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Scientific research requires measurements. There is an issue of objectivity and subjectivity. Often used to describe distress or disturbance are SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress), other forms of subjective measurement which claim to be empirical science are the MMPI or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

Psychology and Psychiatry: Simarilities and Differences

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Seeing Persons with psychological disorders as People not Disorders

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Recovery as a legitimate psychological concept

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In order to place recovery as a legitimate psychological concept, we must first review expert psychology authorities on the matter. These experts are authorities in both the science of psychology and the personal expeirince of psychological disorders, they themselves are consumers of mental health services.

Food for thought (Recovery from Medication?)

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ESSAY QUESTIONS

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  1. David Rosenhan and his associates established that a psychiatric hospital can not determine whether or not a person has psychological disorder or not, why is it that mental patients identified who was mentally ill from who was not mentally ill?
  2. David Rosenhan proved that psychiatric hospitals can not identify mental illness from mental wellness, and they placed the label of in "remission" on him, is this not unlike failing to admit that they were wrong?
  3. If you were to write a thesis, from the perspective that you believe 100% in the chemical imbalance theory, mental illness and psychiatry (that is to say that you were completely without any antipsychiatry views), would you not believe that clarifying who is mentally ill from who is not to be of the upmost importance in treating psychological disorders? How would this benefit the treatment of psychological disorders?
  4. Should psychiatrists un-diagnose the diagnosis of schizophrenia on Rosenhan if they are to make their science honestly applicable?
  5. Should psychiatrists be allowed to diagnose a person to have recovered from mental illness or otherwise undo the diagnosis, in much the same way a brick layer can unbuild a brick wall?
  6. Was the alleged pathological "writing behavior" that was noticed by psychiatric staff unlike the neccessary note taking behavior of the psychiatric staff at an earlier time, when they themselves were in college?
  7. Is learned helplessness inevitable for persons with psychiatric conditions? (to answer this one, It may help to follow the links on the next lesson on recovery and watch the Recovery Lecture videos from VirtualWard on YouTube)
  8. For Quasi-historical prespective on psychological disorder read Alice in Wonderland, what was the author really trying to say?
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