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Cards In This Set
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Psychopathology
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the study of abnormal behavior.
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•In ancient times holes were cut in an ill person’s head
to let out evil spirits in a process called trepanning.
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A
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•Hippocrates believed that mental illness came from an
imbalance in the body’s four humors.
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A
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•In the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were labeled as
witches.
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A
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The
new groom was happy with his new bride. But she insisted that he wear his
motorcycle helmet during sex.
Is that normal? Does this get someone on the rolls of the mentally ill? |
The
answer depends on how we define mental fitness and there are many ways of going
about it.
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1.
Platonic Ideal
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•Somewhere
in the universe there exists a person who is the perfect specimen of
psychological health. We are all short of this but it provides the model for us
to emulate.
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1.
Platonic Ideal
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•But
– someone has to describe that person and if we all fall short how do we do
that?
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2.
Common sense everyday way a.
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If I do it is healthy; if I don’t do it it’s sick. Is it
crazy to white water raft? Or sky dive? Or bungee cord jump? Is it sick to hear
voices when no one is there? Not if you hear them and welcome the company.
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2.
Common sense everyday way b.
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This sets ourselves up as the standard. There’s nothing
inherently wrong with this, except it’s just possible that some of us – not me
you understand – area bit odd ourselves. And we can’t measure accurately with a
bent ruler.
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3.
Psychodynamic (Freudian) model a.
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Normal is a balancing act. All of us have impulses that
are not tolerated by society. The healthy person keeps them under lock and key
and lets them out when no one is looking.
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3. Psychodynamic (Freudian) model b.
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If you smash things at home all the time it’s a problem,
but if you hammer nails into wood, no one minds. So normal people build a deck
behind the house.
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3. Psychodynamic (Freudian) model c.
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But, if every time you feel like slugging someone you
keep building that deck -- it gets
troublesome..
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4.
Behaviorism model
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Judge behavior from its consequences. If the results are
good, so is the behavior. Normal behavior, then, is what works. But is that enough? - Masochists and sadists may work out a mutually rewarding
relationship, but are they healthy?
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5.
Societal model
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What is healthy is what society finds acceptable. So
aggression is abnormal among the gentle Tassaday of the Phillipenes, but normal among the fierce Yanamamo of Venezuela.
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5. Societal model b.
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But there is something troubling about fixing mental
health to a mailing address. (Hitler’s Germany, Chicago’s drive bys, etc.)
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