What is abnormal?

you xx

When normal psychology goes wrong .. this is how we understand the normal

What makes a thought of behaviour abnormal?

What is a mental disorder?

How do we determine who has a mental disorder is in need of treatment?

There are so many circumstances which we think are abnormal, but possibly in another culture is perfectly normal.

But is there a time where something is universally abnormal?

Case: wayyy back in the 1700’s a guy thought the french had magnetised the air he breathed, and they were controlling his body

Defining abnormality is difficult!

But there are 4 key characteristics to determine whether a thought or behaviour is ‘abnormal’ → note there are limitations to this.

1. statistically infrenquent in the population

   1. any deviation from the form is ‘abnormal’

   2. limitation: not all statistically infrequent mental characteristics are ‘anmormal’

      1. e.g like Einstein, even though his brain in statistically abnormal, you won’t treat him for abnormal behaviour

      2. Beethoven, again, musical genius and you woulnd’t treat him to mak ehim ‘normal’

2. Violates social norms

   1. limitations:

      1. e.g what is concered socially acceptable ochanges over time e.g homosexuality was considered a mental disorder until 1973

         1. nothing has changed about being gay between then and now LMAO, just the perception of what is okay has changed.

      2. what is socially acceptable differs between cultures

3. Cause distress

   1. abnromal thoughts / behavious cause distress

   2. most mental disorders are associated with distress

      1. limitations:

         1. distress is normal in some situations (e.g grieving or trauma)

         2. some widely acceted psychopathologies are not associated with distress e.g mania, psychopathy

4. Case impairment

   1. in an individuals ability to function

      1. socially, occupationally, personally

         1. e.g you drunk so much taht you can’t get to work, or you can’t public speak even if your job is lecturing.

      2. limitation:

         1. asperger’s disorder (now classified as the autism spectrum)

         2. apparently the room full of guys at nasa who just sent people to the mood all tested positive for autism

Abnormal thoughts and behaviours tend not to occur in isolation

instead they tend to occur in distinctive clusters

• hallucinations and delusions tend to co-occur

• obsessions and compulsions tend to co-occur

• negative mood and flat affect and loss of energy and sleep difficulties tend to co-occur, no motivavation

A mental disorder is a distinct and recognizable cluster of abnormal thoughts and behaviours

Some history: Mental disorders used to be clustered together as ‘you’re mad’, or

Big brain guy: Emile Kraepelin

• was the first to classify types of mental disorders based on systematic empirical observations

• before him, there was little agreement on what constituted a mental illness

• he offered diagnostic categories defined by common patters of symptoms.

Van Gogh: bipolar disorder

Janice Joplin: substance abuse (also mental disorder)

Churchill: Depression (the black dog of depression) → the black dog institute

Kraeplin’s system - mental disorders are separate entities

• that is, for any given mental disorder, you have it or you don’t

  • that might seem obvious but sometimes its hard to spot, as many mental disorders are just extreme versions of normal behaviour

  • e.g clinical anxiety seems to differ from normal enxiety in severity, duration, degree of impairment etc. not but in quality

  • for this purpose we need to draw the line between NORMAL and ABNORMAL

• At this point a dimension become a category

Clinical diagnosis and the DSM

8 the major diagnostic system used bt psychoogisis is the Diagnostic and Statistical mnaual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

• operates on a categorical approach

• if you fulfill criteria, you have the mental disorder

• in some ways, they make the rules as to whats normal and abnormal

• the major alternative classification is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10)

  • more popular in europe and america

Case: Formerly known as Multiple-personality disorder or now DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID)

• known as split personality

• characterised but he presence of two or more distinct personality states and memory variations

  • each alter has access to only a subset of memories

  • this is quite controvertial

Case: Eve and her 3 personalities

#1: Eve White, Eve Black and uhh

• They had different memories, and weren’t aware of each other’s existence

• She could control the switching

Food for thought:

• there were 183 mental disorders, but now there are over 300

• which mental disorders exist in reality???