Descriptive phenomenology

Question 1

2 divisions of psychopathology

Answer 1

1. Explanatory-> causative
2. Descriptive-> description ad categorising abnormal experiences. observation of behaviour and assessment of subjective experience= phenomenololgy (jaspers)

Question 2

Jaspers contrasting understanding and explaining

Answer 2

Understanding-> requires empathic understanding of subjective experience
Explaining-> causative

Question 3

Distinction of form and content in psychopathology

Answer 3

Form of psychological experience is description in phenomenological terms ie delusion. Needed for diagnosis
Content is the psychosocial environmental context within which the person describes the abnormal form. Needed for treatment plan

Question 4

Psycholopathology development vs process

Answer 4

Development- change of thinking or behaviour emerging from previous patterns of subjective experience
Process- event imposed form outside cannot be understood in terms of natural progression from previous state

Question 5

Differentiating pseudohallucinations

Answer 5

“Unreal” perception
lack quality of corporeal and tangible, appear spontaneously, discernible from real perception, difficult but not impossible to overcome voluntarily
Percept lacks a real external equivalent and arises from the subject

Question 6

Aetiological theories of hallucinations

Answer 6

1. Overstimulation affecting different levels of information processing
2. failure of inhibition of mental functions
3. Distortion of information processing at interpretive level

Question 7

Three types of thinking represnting a continuum from low to high regard for external reality

Answer 7

1. Fantasy thinking (dereistic or autistic)- becomes abnormal when accepted as fact. Goal is to avoid reality via neglect, denial or distortion of reality
2. Imaginative- betwee. Forming a representation of an object/situation using fantasy without going beyond realms of rational and possibility
3. Rational- attempt to resolve problem with logic, excluding fantasy

Question 8

Relate fantasy and imaginative thinking to overvalued ideas and delusions

Answer 8

In OI, imagined representation surpasses others in strength

In delusions, all possibilities are excluded

Question 9

Delusional definition

Answer 9

Overriding, rigid, convictions which create self-evident, private and isolating reality requiring no proof

Question 10

Differentiate primary and secondary delusions

Answer 10

(jaspers)
Primary: True delusional ideas= psychological irreducibility
Secondary= delusion-like idease, emerge understandable from disturbing life experiences/other pathological mood state or misperception

Question 11

Four types of primary delusions

Answer 11

1. Delusional intuition (autochtonous)- occurring ‘out of the blue’
2. Delusional percept- normal perception acquires delusional significance
3. Delusional memory- distorted/false memory, coming spontaneously. Normal memories can be interpreted with delusional meaning
4. Delusional atmosphere- world seems subtly altered, something uncanny, person feels involved. From this- self reference and formation of structured and specific delusional meaning. Can be associated with ‘delusional mood’

Question 12

Six delusional themes

Answer 12

Delusion of persecution
Delusion of love
Delusion of guilt
Grandiose delusion
Hypochondriacal delusion
Delusional jealousy

Question 13

Systematised delusions

Answer 13

Highly organised, logical

Question 14

Polarised delusion

Answer 14

Delusional reality inextricable intermingled with actual fact

Question 15

Delusional juxtaposition

Answer 15

when delusion and reality exist side by side without influencing each other

Question 16

Autistic delusion

Answer 16

Patient takes no account of reality and lives in a delusinal world

Question 17

Overvalued idea

Answer 17

acceptable, comprehensible idea pursued beyond bounds of reason

Question 18

Overvalued ideas of prejudice

Answer 18

underlying self referent interpretation of behaviour/sayings of others- assume to be overlooked, slighted, unfairly treated, provoked ;or loved

Question 19

Overvalued apprehension

Answer 19

Morbid jealousy
hypochondriacial phobia
dysmorphophobia (attract attention due to defect)

Question 20

Cognitive schema in depressed state

Answer 20

negative thinking starts from negative life events and spresds to more general events

Question 21

delusions in depressed state

Answer 21

guilt, religious failure, condemnation, personal insufficiency, impoverishment, hypochondriasis, nihilistic dideas

Question 22

contrasting delusions in affective states to schizophrenia

Answer 22

affective states arise from excessive mood, and tend not to be something new or alien to the personality

Question 23

What differentiates phobic and anakastic phenomena

Answer 23

pt experiences them as unwanted but cannot suppress them

Question 24

Phobia definition

Answer 24

inappropriate, exagerrated fears, not under voluntary control/cannot be reasoned away, entail avoidance behaviour

Question 25

two types of symptoms in anakastic phenomenon

Answer 25

Obsessions- repeated thoughts, memoried, images, ruminations unable to prevent. Known to be theirs.
Compulsions- actions, rituals, behaviours part of own behaviour, cannot resist

Question 26

Describe anankastic personality

Answer 26

perfectionism, rigidity, sensitivity, indecisiveness

Question 27

Disorder of thinking process: Disorders of the flow of thinking

Answer 27

in rational thought a determining tendency guides flow.

1. disorders of the speed- acceleration (flight of idease: goal of thought not maintained, intervention of new thought) or retardation (hampers formation of association, not reaching original goal)
2. circumstantiality: exploring unnecessary associations arising in the mind. Inability to exclude unimportant associations
3. Perseveration- inability to shift from one theme to another. thought retained long after it has become inappropriate
4. Interruptions in the flow
   - thought blocking: sudden unintended cessation in train of thought
   - loosening of associations: flow deiates toward distant or unrelated thought (type of FTD)
   - tangential: ideas deviate toward obliquely related theme
   - fusionL difference associations evoked by original thought blend to produce word/sentence
   - derailment: interpolation of ideas which pt or observer cannot link with previous stream
   - muddling: extreme derailment/fusion

Question 28

Disorder of thinking process: Overinclusive thinking

Answer 28

inability to preserve conceptual boundaries, ideas only distantly related to concept become incorporated

Question 29

Disorder of thinking process: Concrete and abstract thinking

Answer 29

in organic/mental retardation, inability to think abstractly = diminished capacity to structure a concept.
SCZ manifests as excessive abstract thinking ?disturbance in working memory, concrete meaning of initial thought not retained.

Question 30

Disorder of thinking process: disorders of control of thinking

Answer 30

Obsessions and compulsions
Passivity: thoughts manipulated by outside influences- withdrawal, insertion, broadcasting
Crowding of thoughts0 excess of thoughts from outside influence

Question 31

Language and speech disorder:

Answer 31

1. generation and articulation: aphonia, dysphonia, dysarthria, stutter, logoclonia (repetittion of syllables)\
2. disturbance in talking: volume, sund, intonation, bradyphasia/tachyphasia, logorrhea (verbosity +manic states), alogia (poverty of speech), poverty of content (conveys little), vebigeration (monotonous repetition of syllables), echolalia, approximate answers, paragrammatism/parasyntax (loss of coherence), private symbolism (neologism, using existing words, private incomprehensible language), mutism, pseudologia fanastica (fluent lying)