Issues in mental health - 1 Flashcards
What are the four key historical views on mental health?
Trepanation
Wandering uterus
Unbalanced humours
witchcraft
What is trepanation and its key ideas?
Earliest supernatural explanation for mental illness
Possession by evil spirits cause the person to display symptoms of mental illness
Drilling a hole in the skull to let the evil spirits out
Often accompanied by other religious rituals
What is wandering uterus and its key aspects?
Later named hysteria (greek)
The uterus becomes disloged and attaches to other parts of the body such as the liver or chest cavity
Prevents proper functioning of the body or producing varied and sometimes painful symptoms
Strong smelling substances were used to guide the uterus back to the correct position
Pleasant to lure and unpleasant to dispel
What are unbalanced humours and their key aspects?
Works on the principle that a substance in the body is in excess or deficiency
Four fluids were: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm
Classed mental illness as either: epilepsy, mania, melancholia or brain fever
Illness was caused by and imbalance in one of the homours
What were the key aspects of witchcraft?
Mentally ill women were viewed as witches who were possesed
supernatural theories of mental disorders dominated europe
Treatements included prayer rites, relic touching, confessions and atonement
What are some examples of modern treatemts of mental illness?
Establishment of hospitals and asylums in the 16th century
Aimed to house the mentally ill, unemployed, poor , homeless, and the criminal
Classed as undesireables who needed to be separate from society
Govenment was responsible for housing and feeding them
Many were institutionalised agaisnt their will
Treatements were similar for those of physical illness
What is psychoanalysis?
Dominant psychogenic treatement for mental illness in the first half of the 20th century
Begining of client based approaches to treatement
Define supernatural theories
Theories that attribute mental illness to possession by evil/demonic spirits displeasure of gods eclipses planetary gravitation curses and sin
What are somatogenic theories?
Identify disturbances in physical functioning resulting from either illness genetic inheritance or brain damage/imbalance
What are psychogenic theories?
Focus on the traumatic or stressful experiences maladaptive learned assosiations and cognitions or distorted perceptions
What are the four definitions of abnormality?
Statistical infequency
Deviation from social norms
Failure to function adequately
Deviation from ideal mental health
What is an anxiety disorder?
A negative mood state that is accompanied by bodily symptoms such as increased heartrate muscle tension a sense of unease and apprehension
Disorder has a significant impact on everyday life
What is a phobia?
An irrational fear of a specific object or situation that substantially interferes with the persons ability to function
what is a psychotic disorder?
Invlove many different symptoms such as delusions hallucinations disorganised speech/behaviour abnormal motor behaviour and amotivation and affected/reduced speech
What is schizophrenia?
Sometimes viewed as the splitting of oneself
A person often has false beliefs about reality
Speech may be difficult to follow as it can become disorganised
Disorganised behaviour is also common including odd dress or unusual rituals
