PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Why is it that when we talk to God we’re praying, but

When God talks to us we’re schizophrenic?

-THOMAS SZASZ, PSYCHIATRIST

·       INTRODUCTION

·       DEFINITION OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

·       HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR

·       MODERN APPROACHES TO PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

·   INTEGRATIVE APPROACHES TO PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: THE BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL

· DEFINING AND CLASSIFYING PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS                                 

·       DIAGNOSING PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

·       DSM 5 

INTRODUCTION

 Psychopathology, also called abnormal psychology, the study of mental disorders and unusual or maladaptive behaviours. Psychopathology studies the causes, treatment, and consequences of psychological disorders or mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and psychoses. In short, this discipline can be understood as an in-depth study of problems related to mental health. Just like Pathology is the study of the nature of disease i.e. their causes, development and outcomes Psychopathology is the study of the same concepts within the realm of mental health. Psychopathology refers to an abnormality, dysfunction, and mental illness. In this way, psychopathology is all about exploring problems relating to mental health: how to understand them, classify them, and how to treat them. The term Psychopathology was first used by Karl Jaspers a German Psychiatrist in 1913 in his book General Psychopathology.

DEFINITION OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

According to Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley (2007) psychological disorder is an ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behaviour that causes significant distress, and that is considered deviant in that person’s culture or society.  

Mental health workers view Psychological disorders as ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional (Comer, 2004).

Being different (deviant) from most other people in one’s culture is part of what it takes to define a psychological disorder. As the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson observed in 1862,

Assent and you are sane

Demur you’re straightaway dangerous

and handled with a Chain.

Psychological disorders have much in common with other medical disorders. They are out of the patient’s control, they may in some cases be treated by drugs, and their treatment is often covered by medical insurance. Like medical problems, psychological disorders have both biological (nature) as well as environmental (nurture) influences. These causal influences are reflected in the bio-psycho-social model of illness (Engel, 1977).

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