Kellie Martel
Malerie Dooling
Peter Choi
 What is psychological abnormality?
 Field devoted to the study of abnormal behavior
 Goals are to understand and treat abnormal patterns of
functioning
 Deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, and dangerous
 What is treatment?
 Procedure to help change abnormal behavior into more normal
behavior
 Systematic process for helping people overcome their
psychological difficulties
 The unearthed bones, artwork, and other remnants of
ancient society showed that they saw abnormal
behavior as the work of evil spirits
 Thought magical beings controlled the world
 Human body and mind was battle of good vs. evil
 Because they thought
abnormal behavior was evil
overtaking the body the
treatment was to force out
the demon
 Stone Age –half a million
years ago
 Trephination- a stone
instrument was used to cut
out a circular section of the
skull
 Purpose was to release the
evil spirits that were
causing abnormality
 many early societies used
exorcisms to make the
evil spirits leave the
individual’s body
 The shaman recites
prayers and pleads with
the evil spirit
 The idea was to make the
person’s body an
uncomfortable place to
inhabit
 500 B.C to A.D 500-
Hippocrates taught the
natural cause of illness
 Thought brain disease led
to an imbalance of humors
 Yellow bile, black bile,
blood, phlegm
 Fluids that flowed through
the body
These ideas were shared by
Plato and Aristotle
 A.D. 500 to 1350 Religious beliefs came to dominate
views again as demonology returned.
 Exorcisms were revived
 Starving, whipping, scalding, and stretching the
individual
After Middle Ages Demonology and exorcism ended
Focus shifted to Medical views and causes; treatment
in hospitals
 About 1400-1700
 German doctor Johann Weyer- mind was susceptible
to illness like the body
 Religious shrines were set in place – the people were
treated humanely like todays community mental
health programs but they could only house a small
number of patients
 Began to use Asylums –institutions for mentally ill
 Started to overfill and became prisonlike with terrible
conditions and cruelty
 Reform and Moral Treatment
 Focused on moral and humane techniques in order to
respect patients; deserved individual care
 Dorothea Dix of Boston (new laws and government
funding)
 But Moral Treatment Fades
 Due to shortage of money and staff
 Prejudice began to form against people with mental
disorders
 Public views worsened
 Somatogenic perspective- physical cause
 Lobotomy (cut of certain nerve fiber in the brain)
 1930’s inject insulin to induce shock and temporary
coma as a treatment for schizophrenia
 1940’s electrotherapy
 1950’s psychotropic medications
 1970’s deinstitutionalization
 Psychogenic perspective- psychological cause
 Hypnotism and psychoanalysis
 “According to international research, mental illness tends
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to be portrayed negatively in the mass media in both news
and entertainment media.”
Negative representations of mental issues cause negative
images and stereotypes.
A strong link between mental illness and violence has been
made.
Negative representations of mental illness also has an
influence on community attitudes towards the mentally ill.
There is evidence that the reporting is improving, which
will improve community attitudes towards mental illness.
 Story of a woman who has
been locked up in a room
with yellow wallpaper by
her husband (who is also
her physician)
 The woman is possibly
suffering from postpartum
psychosis—onset of
psychotic symptoms
following birth of a child.
http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Wallpaper-Charlotte-PerkinsGilman/dp/1449598285/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269364493
&sr=1-2-spell
 The woman grows to believe she must free the woman
behind the yellow wallpaper—rips down the wallpaper
and exclaims, “I’ve got out at last” as she circles around
the room.
 Although the story was written in order to show her
doctors poor choice of therapy, the woman in this
story is portrayed as a mentally unstable woman, who
at times is crazy. The story makes one feel as though
the family is ashamed of her and thus they lock her in
the room.
 Two migrant ranch
workers, George and
Lennie, hope to obtain
freedom and purchase and
live on their own land.
 Lennie is mentally ill and
has an obsession of
touching soft objects,
which leads to accusations
of rap when Lennie stokes
a woman’s dress.
http://www.amazon.com/Mice-Men-John-Steinbeck/dp/B001D3KDPU/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269364412&sr=8-8
 Lennie ends up killing a woman while trying to touch
her hair and George and Lennie’s dream of freedom is
taken away forever.
 A negative portrayal of mental illness, which also
connects mental illness to violence and danger.
 Narrator “Chief”
Bromden tells the story
of the life in a mental
hospital from an
employee’s perspective.
 Randle McMurphy is one
of the main characters
who is a rebellious
patient in the mental
hospital and spends
most of his time fighting
http://schol.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/fb1c6199-c7e8-48b7-9401-88e15f9e1c0aimg100.jpg
against rules.
 McMurphy is seen as the ring leader who gets people
in trouble, causing one to commit suicide, and is also
connected to violence.
 Mental illness is once again linked to violence and
danger.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs37/f/2008/243/9/e/One_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest_by_nami86.jpg
 A memoir of a woman
who has been fighting
with anorexia and
bulimia her whole life.
 Her mental instability
and eating disorder leads
her to drug abuse,
promiscuity, and ruins
many relationships she
has with friends and
family.
http://www.amazon.com/Wasted-Memoir-Anorexia-Bulimia-P-S/dp/0060858796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269364296&sr=8-1
 Goes on rampages where she would starve herself and
then binge, eating everything in her house, only to
throw her food up shortly after.
 Checked into rehab multiple times—would still find
ways to cheat the system while in rehab.
 Although she is seen as having a life threatening
mental illness, the illness was not portrayed in a
negative way where it makes others fear her. The
author has written the book in order to help women
and men avoid the illness that will last with her forever
 Girl Interrupted
 An Unique Mind
 Prozac Nation
 I’ve Never Promised You
a Rose Garden
 Many more…
www.amazon.com
 Like in literature, in film mental illnesses are usually
associated with things such as serial killers.
 Mental illnesses are often portrayed negatively which
creates new stereotypes and opinions of the mentally
ill and their condition by the public.
http://thecriticalthinker.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/forensic-psychology-psychopath.jpg
http://iconsoffright.com/news/saw-billy.jpg
 An adaptation from
Anthony Burgess’ A
Clockwork Orange written
in 1962, describing the
reform of a delinquent in
the near future.
 Takes place in a futuristic
London where crime rates
are very high. The
government’s Minister of
Interior tried to implement
a new technique to
suppressing criminal
http://howardhughes.trinity.duke.edu/uploads/assets/clockwork.jpg
behavior and urges.
 Dr. Ludovico’s
Technique: Based on real
treatments.
 Uses mental
conditioning and
aversion therapy to
suppress id.
 Story of a genius
mathematician who struggles
with paranoid schizophrenia
and is awarded one of the
most prestigious prizes in the
world.
 John Nash ends up
entertaining the minds of
M.I.T., however, his delusions
and schizophrenia begin to
overtake and obstruct his
ability to possess a normal
relationship with the people
http://www.collegenowlive.com/IMAGES/ImagesPEARL/A-Beautiful-Mind.jpg
he loves.
 Schizophrenia is a group of severe brain disorders in
which people interpret reality abnormally.
Schizophrenia may result in some combination of
hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking and
behavior. The ability of people with schizophrenia to
function normally and to care for themselves tends to
deteriorate over time.
 Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia isn't split
personality or multiple personality. The word
"schizophrenia" does mean "split mind," but it refers
to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and
thinking.
 Takes place in 1920s – 1940s in
the U.S.
 Howard Hughes is a film
producer and a revolutionary of
commercial airliners who is a
germophobe as well as extremely
depressed.
 Germophobia is attributed to
obsessive compulsive disorder.
(Mysophobia)
 Depression is a disorder that
involves the mind and soma,
causing both emotional and
physical problems and may feel
as though life is not worth living.
http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/video/stills/aviator-01_l.jpg
 Today drugs such as Zoloft are used to ameliorate one’s
OCD.
 With depression it leads to his recluse like behavior
trapping himself in his screening room, wanting to
disappear and wanting to separate himself from the
rest of the world, seemingly uninterested.
http://www.advancedbehavioralhealthcenter.com/images/zoloft_02.jpg
 Adaptation from novel by
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2008/01/08-15/fight-club-brad-pit-tyler.jpg
Chuck Palahniuk Fight
Club.
 About a man who suffers
from insomnia. Also shows
signs of delusional
thoughts and dissociative
identity disorder.
 Schizophrenia is a severe
mental illness where the
patient has hallucinations
not multiple personalities.
 Therapy:
 Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Talk Therapy
 Drugs:
 Antidepressants, Anti-anxiety medications.
 No real cure.
Comer, Ronald. Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology.
5th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2008.
"Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper." College of Staten Island
Library. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavend
er/wallpaper.html>.
Hornbacher, Marya. Wasted: a Memoir of Anorexia and
Bulimia. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers,
1998. Print.
Kesey, Ken, and John Clark. Pratt. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1977. Print.
"Of Mice and Men -." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 16
Mar. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Men>.
Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “History of Mental
Illness.” 3 Oct. 2007. 5 Mar. 2010
<http://www.mentalwellness.com/mentalwellness/history.html>
"Research: Media and Mental Illness." Mindframe - A Resource on
the Portrayal
of Suicide and Mental Illness. Web. 16 Mar.
2010. <http://www.mindframemedia.info/site/index.cfm?display=83685>.