Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
o Possession is not always connected with sin but
may be seen as an involuntary and the possessed
individuals as blameless
o In the middle ages, if exorcism failed, some
authorities resorted to confinement, beatings, and
other forms of torture as treatment (hanging people
over a pit full of poisonous snakes
o Mass Hysteria – whole groups of people were
simultaneously compelled to run out in the streets,
dance, shout, rave, and jump around in patterns as if
they were a particularly wild party (Saint Vitus’s
Dance and Tarantism)
o ofParacelsus
possession –andrejected
suggested the
that the
notions
movement
of moon and starts had profound effects on
people’s psychological functioning
o Johann Weyer – founder of modern psychiatry;
used compassion and pioneering approach in
treating mental illness in Europe during the time of
witchcraft
Biological
o Hippocrates – Father of Modern Medicine
▪ o Benjamin Franklin – discovered that mild and
Hippocratic Corpus (Hippocratic Oath)
▪ Suggested that psych disorders should be
treated like any other disease
▪ Psych disorders might also be caused by
brain pathology or head trauma and could be
influenced by heredity Brain is the seat of
wisdom, consciousness,
▪ intelligence, and emotion
Also coined the word Hysteria to describe a
▪ concept he learned about from the Egyptians
(now
Wandering Somatic
Uterus Symptoms Disorders)
▪
o Galen – adopted the ideas of Hippocrates and
developed Humoral Theory of Disorders
a. Blood – heart; sanguine – cheerful and
optimistic
b. Black Bile – liver; melancholic – depressed
and sentimental
c. Yellow Bile – spleen; choleric – apathetic
and chill
d. Phlegm – brain; phlegmatic – hot-tempered
▪ Two treatments: Bloodletting and induced
vomiting
▪ Robert Burton – recommended eating
tobacco and half-boiled cabbage to induced
vomiting
o Chinese focused on the movement of air or
“wind” throughout the body
▪ Unexplained mental disorders were caused
by blockages of wind or the presence of
cold, dark wind (yin) as opposed to warm,
life-sustaining (yang)
▪ Treatment: acupuncture
o Advanced Syphilis – sexually transmitted
disease caused by a bacterial microorganism
entering the brain, include delusions
o patients
General Paresis – psychotic
deteriorated steadily, becoming paralyzed and
dying within 5 years of onset
o John P. Grey – believed that the causes of
insanity were always physical
▪
Invented rotary fan
▪Conditions in hospitals greatly improved
In the 1930s, the physical interventions of
o
electric shocks and brain surgeries were often
used
o Manfred Sakel – used large doses of insulin to
convulse and temporarily comatose patients
(Insulin Shock Therapy)
modest electric shock to the head produced
brief convulsion and memory loss but
otherwise did little harm
o Joseph von Meduna – schizophrenia is rarely
observed to individuals with epilepsy
o Emil Kraepelin – founding fathers of modern
psychiatry
▪
Contributed to the diagnosis and
classification of disorders
▪ Dementia Praecox
Psychological
o Aristotle – emphasized the influence of social
environment and early learning on later
psychopathology
o Moral Therapy – basic tenets included treated
institutionalized patients as normally as
possible in a setting that encouraged and
reinforced normal social interaction
▪
Philippe Pinel and Jean-Baptiste Pussin –
Moral Therapy in Framce
▪ William Tuke – Moral Therapy in England
▪ Benjamin
Dorothea DixRush – Moralhealth
– mental therapy in US
movement
▪
o Franz Anton Mesmer – suggested to his
patients that their problem was caused by an