Introduction to

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
(Episode 4)
Kathleen Kris D. Cortez, Rpsy, RPm
Ron Gabriel A. Peji, RPm, CCTSI, CCTP-II
PsycheTrendz Psychological Services
Unit 8, EA Archon Building, Aguinaldo
Highway, Sampaloc 1, City of Dasmarinas, Cavite
The Supernatural
Tradition
 THE SUPERNATURAL TRADITION

In the beginning,
all deviant
behaviors were
seen as a battle
between good and
evil.
Demons and Witches (14th century)

 Lay authorities attributed abnormalities to

the demons and witches.

 Exorcism- using religious rituals to rid the

victim of evil spirits
Mental Disorders as Punishments

 Since time immemorial, mental disorders

were seen as punishments for people’s evil
doings.

 One solution to avoid evil possessions was to

make the body uninhabitable by evil spirits by
means of confinement, beatings, and other
forms of torture.
Other Bizarre Treatments

 Snake Pits- patients were hang over a pit full

of poisonous snakes to ‘scare’ the spirits away

 Dunking- soaking the patient in ice-cold

water
Other Bizarre Treatments

Hydrotherapy-
shocking the
patients with
strong current
of ice-cold
water
Mass Hysteria

 also known as mass psychogenic illness, collective

hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional
behavior

 is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions

of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a
population and society as a result of rumors and
fear
Mass Hysteria

 Saint Vitus’s Dance and/or tarantism

 Large-scale outbreaks of bizarre behavior

 Currently explained as a manifestation of

emotion contagion
The Moon and the Stars

 Paracelsus- claimed that the movements of

the stars and the moon affected people’s
psychological functioning (which inspired
the term ‘lunatic’ or crazy)
The Biological
Tradition
Hippocrates and Galen

 Hippocrates- Greek physician who was

considered as the father of modern Western
medicine; He believed that psychological
disorders may be caused by brain pathology,
head trauma, or heredity.
Hippocrates and Galen

 Galen- Roman physician who adopted

Hippocrates’s work and later formulated the
humoral theory of mental disorders

 Humors-chemical systems regulating human

behavior.
The Humoral Theory

HUMOR PERSONALITY DISORDER

Black Bile Melancholia Depression

Insomnia and
Blood Sanguine
Delirium
Apathy and
Phlegm Phlegmatic
Sluggishness

Yellow Bile Choleric Hot-tempered

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Humor-based Treatments

 Bleeding/Bloodletting-
removing a carefully
measured amount of
blood from the body
Humor-based Treatments

 Vomit Inducement- prescribed by Robert

Burton (1621) through recommending eating
tobacco and a half-boiled cabbage
Ancient Treatments

 For the Chinese, abnormalities were caused

by the unbalanced yin (cold, dark wind) and
yang (warm, life-sustaining wind) in the
body.

 For the Egyptians, abnormalities were

caused by the ‘wandering uterus.’
The 19th Century

 Through the course of time after Galen and

Hippocrates, the biological tradition waxed
and waned up until the 19th century, when
people discovered more about syphilis and
John P. Grey brought the biological
perspective back to life.
Syphilis

 A sexually transmitted disease caused by a bacterial

microorganism entering the brain

 Symptoms include persecutory delusion and grandiose

delusion, paralysis, insanity, and death.

 In 1825, it was designated as general paresis due to the

similarities of their symptoms.
Syphilis
 Only clearly understood after Louis Pasteur
formulated his germ theory of disease in
about 1870

 Later on, people discovered that ‘malaria’

can be used to cure general paresis.

 Treatment was to infect sufferer with malaria

(high fever would kill the syphilis organism).
John P. Grey

 An American psychiatrist who revived the

biological tradition in America

 He believed that the causes of insanity were

always physical.

 His treatments focused on rest, diet, proper

room temperature, and ventilation.
New Biological Treatments

 Include electric shock and brain surgery

 Some of the effects of these physical

treatments were discovered accidentally.

 Insulin- originally given to stimulate

appetite in psychotic patients, but it also
seemed to calm them down.
New Biological Treatments

 Insulin Shock Therapy- formulated by

Manfred Sakel, a Viennese physician; It
includes inducing higher dosages of insulin
until patients convulse and become
temporarily comatose.
New Biological Treatments

 Benjamin Franklin- discovered that a mild

and modest electric shock to the head could
produce a brief convulsion and amnesia

 Joseph von Meduna- believed that induced

brain seizures might cure schizophrenia
 electroconvulsive therapy

◈ Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can provide rapid,

significant improvements in severe symptoms of several
mental health conditions. ECT is used to treat:
◈ Severe depression, particularly when accompanied by
detachment from reality (psychosis), a desire to commit
suicide or refusal to eat.
◈ Treatment-resistant depression, a severe depression that
doesn't improve with medications or other treatments.

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 electroconvulsive therapy

◈ Severe mania, a state of intense euphoria, agitation or hyperactivity

that occurs as part of bipolar disorder. Other signs of mania include
impaired decision-making, impulsive or risky behavior, substance
abuse, and psychosis.
◈ Catatonia, characterized by lack of movement, fast or strange
movements, lack of speech, and other symptoms. It's associated with
schizophrenia and certain other psychiatric disorders. In some cases,
catatonia is caused by a medical illness.
◈ Agitation and aggression in people with dementia, which can be
difficult to treat and negatively affect quality of life.

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The Modern Drugs

 Opium- used as sedatives

 Rauwolfia serpentine (or reserpine) and

neuroleptics- used to diminish positive
symptoms

 Benzodiazepines- used to reduce anxiety

Emil Kraepelin
 One of the founding fathers of psychiatry
 He was one of the first people to distinguish
among various disorders.

 Classified psychosis into two forms, manic

depression and dementia praecox.

 He was the first to categorize psychological

disorders based on their symptoms (called
the classical or categorical approach).
The Psychological
Tradition
Moral Therapy
 Pioneered by the French psychiatrist
Philippe Pinel

 Focused on emotional and psychological

factors that could affect the course of
mental illnesses

 Individual attention was given, and social

interactions were facilitated.
Moral Therapy

 William Tuke- extended the moral therapy

to England

 Benjamin Rush- considered as the founder

of U.S. psychiatry and introduced moral
therapy to the Pennsylvania Hospital
Moral Therapy

 Asylums- first versions of mental health

facilities, but were more like prisons than
hospitals

 Horace Mann- chairman of the Worcester

State Hospital who reported some 32
patients that were incurable, but that who
were cured by moral therapy
Dorothea Dix
 Dorothea Dix- a schoolteacher who was best
known as the pioneer of the 19th century
mental hygiene movement
◈ Helped establish 32 mental hospitals throughout the
United States.
◈ 1845 – first public mental hospital in
Pennsylvania Harrisburg State Hospital.
◈ 1847 – first state mental institution in Illinois
established.
◈ 1856 – first state mental institution in North Carolina
opened and named in her honor.
◈ Authored bills that were intended to protect, and
reform treatment for, mentally ill patients.

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The Reemergence of
the Psychological
Tradition
The Psychoanalytic Theory

 Founded by Sigismund “Sigmund” Freud

 Focused on the unconscious as the main

source of mental disorders

 Utilized many psychotherapeutic techniques

such as free association, catharsis, and
dream analysis
The Psychoanalytic Theory
 Claimed that there are three (3) provinces of
the mind: 1) id, 2) ego, and 3) superego

 Held that the mind functions in three (3)

levels: 1) conscious, 2) preconscious, and 3)
unconscious

 Elaborated about the psychosexual stages of

development
The Psychosexual Stages

1. Oral Stage- 0 to 2 years of age

2. Anal Stage- 2 to 3 years of age

3. Phallic Stage- 3 to 6 years of age

4. Latency Stage- 6 to 12 years of age

5. Genital Stage- 12 years and above

The Psychoanalytic Theory

 From the foundation of psychoanalysis, the

ego psychology (Anna Freud), self-
psychology (Heinz Kohut), and object-
relations theory (Melanie Klein) later
developed.
The Humanistic Theory

 Key figures: Abraham Maslow (Holistic-

Dynamic Theory) and Carl Rogers (Person-
Centered Theory)
The Humanistic Theory

 Focused on human strength and actualizing

tendencies

 Rogers also coined ‘unconditional positive

regard’ and its influences on psychological
growth.
The Behavioral Model

 Key figures: Ivan Pavlov (Classical

Conditioning), John B. Watson (the Father of
Behaviorism), and B. F. Skinner (Operant
Conditioning)
 The Behavioral Model

◈ Derived from a Scientific Approach to the Study of

Psychopathology

◈ Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and Classical Conditioning

⬥ Classical conditioning is a ubiquitous form of learning

⬥ Conditioning involves a contingency between neutral and

unconditioned stimuli

⬥ Conditioning was extended to the acquisition of fear

The Behavioral Model

 For the behavioral perspective,

psychopathology develops due to the
consequences of human behavior operating
in the environment. Addiction, personality
disorders, and mood disorders are only some
of the disorders which can be explained by
the behavioral perspective.
 The Beginnings of Behavior Therapy

◈ Reactionary Movement Against Psychoanalysis and Non-Scientific

Approaches
◈ Early Pioneers
⬥ Joseph Wolpe – Systematic desensitization
◈ Edward Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, and Operant Conditioning
⬥ Another ubiquitous form of learning
⬥ Most voluntary behavior is controlled by the consequences that
follow behavior
◈ Learning Traditions Greatly Influenced the Development of Behavior
Therapy
⬥ Behavior therapy tends to be time-limited and direct
⬥ Strong evidence supporting the efficacy of behavior therapies
 Behavioral-Cognitive

◈ Albert Ellis – Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy – RET/REBT – 1950’s - It

is what we think that causes us to be disturbed

◈ Albert Bandura – Social Learning Theory – 1960 (vicarious learning) &

Social Modeling

◈ Aaron (Tim) Beck MD – Cognitive Therapy (1960 & 70); David Burns, MD -
Cognitive distortions

◈ Arnold Lazarus – Multimodal Therapy – 1970’s – 7 domains to address in

assessment and treatment
⬥ BASIC- ID; Behavior, Affect, Sensation, Imagery, Cognitive,
Interpersonal, and Drug (physical)
 The Present: An Integrative Approach

◈ Psychopathology Is Multiply Determined

◈ Unidimensional Accounts of Psychopathology Are Incomplete

◈ Must Consider Reciprocal Relations Between

⬥ Biological, psychological, social, and experiential factors

◈ Defining Abnormal Behavior is Also Complex, Multifaceted, and Has

Evolved

◈ The Supernatural Tradition Has No Place in a Science of Abnormal

Behavior
 End of presentation!

Any questions?
 Introduction to
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

Kathleen Kris D. Cortez, Rpsy, RPm

Ron Gabriel A. Peji, RPm, CCTSI, CCTP-II
PsycheTrendz Psychological Services
Unit 8, EA Archon Building, Aguinaldo
Highway, Sampaloc 1, City of Dasmarinas, Cavite