History of Psychopathology Flashcards
~6,000 to 7,000 BCE
Trepanation - the act of drilling into the skull of a patient to release spirits invading the head within neolithic society was also prominent in ancient Egypt where psychological and physical illness were thought to be the same.
Priests assumed the same role as physicians.
- mostly understood it within the boundaries of the supernatural
- although they found that it could be best understood by observing the results of their treatment (empirical science)
Hippocrates
- noticed contralateral control, right side of the brain controls left side of the body
- understanding that mental illnesses had physical causes
- hysteria - idea that the lack of female sexual activity caused high anxiety and irritability
- biological over supernatural
Traditions of Church in Middle Ages
- exorcism
- eucharistic rituals
- demonic possession was a socially accepted excuse for the treatment of people with epilepsy, tourettes
Bedlam, 16th Century
- the growing poor lower class in Western Europe were addressed with lunacy and insanity and placed into asylums to be “treated” (punished)
Moral Therapy
19th century process of treating patients as normally as possible in normal environments
- melancholics seperated from maniacs
- kindness was valued in treatments
Psychological Tradition
- Anna O, one of the first individual treated with “talking” therapy, diagnosed with hysteria although it coincided with her father’s death, Joseph Breuer
- Sigmund Freud, Breuer’s protege, suggested it was caused by sexual repression, introducing psychoanalysis
20th Century Beyond
Mental Illness become recognised as other physical illnesses
- mass production of drug treatments as a major cure, barbiturates replaced opium, introduction of lithium, chlorpromazine and imipramine still treat bipolar disorder, psychosis and antidepressants respectively
- eventually, use of different medicine for different illnesses eventually occured, although stigmas of medical interventions are still prominent from the over sharing of medicine in Asylums up to the 1950s
Early Contemporary Treatment
Lobotomy → surgery, cutting parts of the frontal lobe.
Insulin Coma Therapy → high dose of insulin to lower blood sugars enough to put a patient into a coma.
Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy → sending electrical currents through the brain to induce a seizure, changing the way neurochemical systems function, still effective for treatment restriction depression, last resort option.
Freud Psychodynamic Theory
mental health problems arise from unconscious psychological conflict, revolutionary
Separation of the Unconscious Mind into Three Parts:
Id, basic drives
Ego, balances the drives of the Id with the demands of reality
Super-Ego, persons conscious
Behaviourism
leading factor to the systematic development of a scientific approach to psychopathology
- behaviours are acquired through conditioning
- psychology as an objective science
Catharsis
process of releasing, providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions
- Freud
Intrapsychic/Unconscious Conflicts
emotional clash of opposing impulses within oneself
Defense Mechanisms
Ego’s (Freud) protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Free Association
Method of exploring the unconscious.
- the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter subject
Self-Actualisation
- reaching full potential
- Jung and Adler
- humanistic psychology
