PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
The lines between “crazy” and “normal” are
fuzzy
• Sometimes it’s a matter of degree.
• Sometimes unconventional people are
labeled as crazy when they are creatively
challenging conventional wisdom.
• There is still a strong social stigma
attached to mental illness.
DSM-IV-TR
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision
• A book by the American Psychiatric
Association that describes the specific
symptoms and diagnostic guidelines for
different psychological disorders
• DSM V due out May 2013
• What is its value?
GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER
(GAD)—an anxiety disorder characterized
by excessive, global and persistent
symptoms of anxiety
• Intense anxiety that disrupts normal
functioning—worrying about anything and
everything
• Panic attacks—intense anxiety that quickly
escalates—sufferers may go to
emergency, sure they are having a heart
attack or stroke
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
(PTSD)
• Originally service people diagnosed—now
any traumatic experience can cause it
OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER
(OCD)
• An anxiety disorder in which the symptoms
of anxiety are triggered by intrusive,
repetitive thoughts and urges to perform
certain actions, e.g., checking, handwashing, counting, symmetry and
precision
MOOD DISORDERS
• Major Depression
• Bipolar Affective Disorder
• Eating Disorders
MAJOR DEPRESSION—More than
Ordinary Sadness
As leader of the alternative rock bank Nirvana, Kurt
Cobain seemed to have everything: fame, artistic
recognition, wealth and adulation from both fans
and music critics. But Cobain also had a history of
troubling epsiodes of deep depression and had
attempted suicide several times. Like other
people gripped by deep depression, Cobain
focused on the negative during the dark episodes.
This negative outlook was sometimes reflected in
his lyrics. Just before the release of his album, In
Utero, the group’s last album, Cobain pulled a
song he had written titled “I Hate Myself and I
Want to Die.” Not long after the release of that
album, Cobain committed suicide by shooting
himself in the head with a shotgun. In his suicide
note, Cobain described himself as a “miserable,
self-destructive death rocker.”
BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER
• Depression and mania
• “An Unquiet Mind” by Kaye Redfield
Jamison
• Sometimes rapidly alternates between
symptoms of mania and major
depression—called rapid cycling
EATING DISORDERS
• anorexia nervosa—extreme weight loss
due to
– not eating
– use of laxatives
– excessive exercising
Unable to “see” thinness
PLEASE read p. 573 and love your friends….
SCHIZOPHRENIA
• Characterized by delusions, hallucinations,
disorganized thought processes, speech
and behavior
• Also characterized by absence of
motivation, emotional expressiveness (flat
affect) and speech
• When two or more symptoms are present
for a month or longer, diagnosis is
schizophrenia
THERAPIES
Therapies associated with four of the
perspectives in psychology
• Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic—Freud,
Jung, and neo-Freudians
• Behavioral—Skinner and Watson
• Cognitive—rational emotive therapy and
positive psychology
• Humanistic—Carl Rogers and clientcentered therapy
• Please seek help if you need it—it is an
indication of strength, not weakness
• Don’t be afraid to shop for the right
therapist—many options
• Read pp. 616 & 617—”What to Expect in
Psychotherapy”