LEC 7 - Limits of Mental Illness Flashcards
What is meant by limit?
We imagine that there’s a qualitative difference between a mental health & physical health
Is normality objective? Where is the line drawn?
Biomedical perspective: those who have a mental disorder don’t fit into the category of a “good
mental health”
Where does the person stop & the disorder begin?
We discuss cancerous tumours and viral cells…what can we say about mental illnesses?
* “I got bipolar disorder” , “I have depression”
Personal responsibility…do people choose to be ill?
Lung cancer is very real even if people might “choose” to bring it on by smoking, are mental
disorders different?
* When is a person controlling their actions vs. when are their actions being controlled by the
disorder?
What if it’s not harmful?
Hypersexuality for a “normal” person vs. a politician
* Ex — a college student more likely to engage in a lot of sexual behaviour whereas politicians
aren’t seen to engage in that; so is the college student fine and politician mentally ill?
Bradley Home (Hyperactivity)
Benzedrine (given to kids) for spinal taps, impact on behaviour and performance (better
behaved in school)
* Found that the drug was making the kids more focused in school
1957, “hyperkinetic impulse disorder”
- Boys predominated, explicitly linked to scholastic performance
- “All children prone to this behaviour”, these kids “more like normal children” than severely
disturbed - In the past, it was very rare for kids to be diagnosed w/a psychiatric illness
Why did Hyperactivity Explode?
- Label reduced complex issues too easy to understand explanations: a hyperactivity problem
- Simple: all sorts of groups could rally behind it (didn’t require thinking and change)
Baby Boom: massive increase in birth rate of children, so tons of kids entering school at the same time (with poorly trained teachers)
Sputnik and Brain Race
Fear that at any min, war was going to break out, so drills were mandatory during school
* US worried about intellectual standing; changed school curriculum (school became longer,
curriculum become more academic)
* These behaviours became problematic (hyperactivity) because it interrupted academic success,
so it became an illness instead of a normal child behaviour
Matt Smith (Hyperactivity)
the hyperactive child became a symbol of perceived American intellectual inferiority vis-avis USSR (became they seem as sort of a threat to the safety of the country)
Battle Over Definitions
Various terms emphasized different aspects
- biological won
- Supported by pharma, gov’t, patient groups, and parents
Shift to ADD
- Shift to ADD in 1980s brought in those who had trouble paying attention
- Person diagnosed was someone who couldn’t sit still
- Ppl who had this disorder began to show other symptoms such as incapability to pay attention
Stimulants used diagnostically (ADD)
ppl would be given the meds, see if they respond, and see that if med is working and
would then confirm that the person indeed has ADD/ADHD
