The more that someone has difficulties in the following

areas, the more likely he or she is to have some form of

mental disorder. (indicators of abnormality)

• Suffering:

• Maladaptiveness

• Statistical Deviancy:

• Violation of the Standards of Society:

• Social Discomfort:

• Irrationality and Unpredictability:

• Dangerousness:
• Abnormal psychology is a division of psychology that studies
people who are "abnormal" or "atypical" compared to the
members of a given society.
• It deals with psychopathology and abnormal behavior, often in
a clinical context. The term covers a broad range of disorders,
from depression to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to
personality disorders. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and
psychotherapists often work directly in this field.
• According to the American Psychological Association,
abnormal psychology is the "area of psychological
investigation concerned with understanding the nature of
individual pathologies of the mind, mood, and behavior."
 HISTORY OF ABNORMALITY
• Mental disorders were believed to be caused by demonic
possession, witchcraft, Satan worship, and/or divine
intervention/possession.

• Anorexia nervosa was treated with exorcism

• Exorcism signifies freeing a
place, person or even object
from some form of negative
spiritual influence.

• Exorcism is the religious or

spiritual practice of evicting
demons or other spiritual
entities from a person, or an
area, that is believed to be
possessed, as were many
nervous disorders.
• Exorcism was a gentle
treatment compared to the
mentally ill who were
deemed witches, and were
literally burned at the stake.
Trephination :
burrowing holes through the
skull to release trapped
demons, was also a common
treatment for mental illness. In
ancient times, holes were
drilled into a person who was
behaving in what was
considered an abnormal way to
let out what people believed
were evil spirits. Evidence of
trepanation has been found in
prehistoric human remains
from Neolithic times onward.
• Philosophers, such as Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, had
comparatively more modern views than those formed in later
centuries.

• Their views were, in fact, similar to 21st century thought on mental

illness. They saw the need for kind treatment of the mentally ill, and
realized that trauma and distress often were root causes of many
disorders.

• Today, our 21st century world sees abnormal psychology in a very

different light than 12th to 16th century counterparts did. New
advances in the research and treatment of mental illness continue to
evolve, and move forward, for the betterment of the individual and
humankind.
 Going forward; the future of Abnormal
Psychology

•Researchers are seeking to find cures for previously thought

"incurable" mental illnesses.

•As the mental health community learns more about the way the
mind works, and what roles heredity, hormones,
neurotransmitters, and physiology play in mental illness, the more
they will understand how to better treat and cure many disorders
of the mind and emotions.

• The mental health community now stresses the use of exercise,

yoga, meditation, diet, supplements, and interaction with healthy
peers to increase resistance to, and to decrease the effects of a
variety of hereditary mental illnesses.