Abnormal Psychology

Cultural Relativism
- Cultural Relativism is the view that there
Defining Abnormality:
are no universal standards or rules for
Normal Behavior, Abnormal thoughts,
labeling a behavior abnormal; instead,
thoughts and feelings behavior and feelings
Typical for the social Highly unusual for the behaviors can be labeled abnormal
context social context only relative to cultural norms (Snowden
Not distressing for the The source of & Yamada, 2005).
individual significant individual - The advantage of this perspective is
distress that it honors the norms and traditions of
Not inferring with Significantly interfering different cultures, rather than imposing
social life with social or
the standards of one culture on
occupational/both
Highly dangerous to judgments of abnormality.
the individual (self) or
others. In Popular Culture
- In popular culture, there are a lot of
Continuum Model: words for people and behaviors that
- There is still a middle ground seem abnormal:
- Something in between - Ex: bend, bananas, barmy, batty,
- Socially established norms berserk, bonkers, flaky, flipped out,
freaked out, fruity, insane, kooky,
lunatic, mad, mad as March here
Socially established
disvision between
normal and Cultural Norms in Abnormal Psychology
abnormal
- Consider these behaviors:
1. A man driving a nail through his hand
2. A woman refusing to eat for several
Normal Abnormal days
3. A man barking like a dog and crawling
on the floor on his hands and knees
4. A woman building a shrine to her dead
husband in her living room and leaving
Socially established division between normal
food and gifts for him at the altar.
and abnormal:
- Somehow unusual for the social context
Gender across cultures
- Distressing to the individual
- In many cultures, men who display
- Interfering with social or occupational
sadness or who choose to stay home to
functioning of the individual
raise their children while their wives work
- Dangerous
are at risk of being labeled abnormal.
- There is still a middle ground
- Women who are aggressive or who
- Something in between
don’t want to have children are at risk
- Socially established norms
of being labeled abnormal.
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 Cultural Relativism symptoms. People who lose touch
- Yet opponents of cultural relativism with reality often believe that they
argue that dangers arise when have divine powers, but whether
cultural norms are allowed to dictate they believe they are Jesus of
what is normal or abnormal. Mohammed depends on their
- In particular, psychiatrist Thomas religious background.
Szasz (1971) noted that, throughout - Second, culture and gender can
history, societies have labeled influence people’s willingness to
individuals and groups abnormal in admit to certain types behaviors or
order to justify controlling or silencing feelings (Snowden & Yamada, 2005)
them. - People in Eskimo and Tahitian
- Hitler branded Jews abnormal and cultures may be reluctant to admit
used this label as one justification for to feeling anger because of strong
the Holocaust. cultural norms against the expression
- The former Soviet Union sometimes of anger.
branded political dissidents mentally - The Kaluli of New Guinea and the
ill and confined them in mental Yanomamo of Brazil, however, value
hospitals. the expression of anger and have
- When the slave trade was active in elaborate and complex rituals for
the United States, slaves who tried to expressing.
escape their masters could be - Third, culture and gender can
diagnosed with a mental disease influence the types of treatments
that was said to cause them to deemed acceptable or helpful for
desire freedom; the prescribed people exhibiting abnormal
treatment for this disease was behaviors.
whipping and hard labor. - Some cultures may view drug
therapies for psychopathology as
Cultural Relativism today most appropriate, while others may
- Most mental health professionals be more willing to accept
these days do not hold an extreme psychotheraphy (Snowden &
relativist view on abnormality, Yamada, 2005).
recognizing the dangers of basing
definitions of abnormality solely on The Four (4) Ds of Abnormality:
cultural norms. - If we do not define abnormality only
- Yet even those who reject an on the basis of cultural norms
extreme cultural-relativist position on - And if we cannot define abnormality
recognize that culture and gender as the presence of a mental illness
have a number of influences on the because no singular, identifiable
expression of abnormal behaviors disease process underlies most
and on the way those behaviors are psychological problems, how do we
treated. define abnormality?
- First, culture and gender can
influence the ways people express
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Modern judgments of abnormality are extreme measure such as starving or
influences by the interplay of four dimensions, beating the person.
often called “the four Ds” - At other times, the person thought to
1. Dysfunction be possessed by evil spirits would
2. Distress simply be killed.
3. Deviance
4. Dangerousness Trephination
- One treatment for abnormality
Historical Perspectives on Abnormality: during the Stone Age and well into
- Across history, three types of theories the Middle Ages may have been to
have been used to explain drill holes in the skull of a person
abnormal behavior. displaying abnormal behavior to
1. The biological theories have viewed allow the spirits to depart (Feldman
abnormal behavior as similar to physical & Goodrich, 2011)
diseases, caused by the breakdown of
systems in the body. The appropriate Ancient Chino: Balancing Yin and Yang
cure is the restoration of bodily health. - Ancient Chinese medicine was
2. The supernatural theories have viewed based on the concept of yin and
abnormal behavior as a result of divine yang. The human body was said to
intervention, curses, demonic possession contain a positive force (yang) and
and personal sin. To rid the person of the a negative force (yin), which
perceived affliction, religious rituals, confronted and complemented
exorcisms, confessions and atonement each other. If the two forces were in
have been prescribed. balanced, the individual was
3. Psychological theories viewed healthy. If not, illness including
abnormal behavior as a result of insanity could result.
traumas such as bereavement, or of - For example, excited insanity was
chronic stress. considered the result of an excessive
positive force.
Driving Away Evil Spirits
- A person who acted oddly was Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome: Biological
suspected of being possessed by evil Theories Dominate
spirits. - Other ancient writings on abnormal
- The typical treatment for behavior are found in the papyri of
abnormality, according to Egypt and Mesopotamia (Veith,
supernatural theories was exorcism 1965)
driving the evil spirits from the body - The oldest of these, a document
of the suffering person. known as the Kahun Papyrus after
- Shamans or healers would recite the ancient Egyptian city in which it
prayers or incantations, try to talk the was found, dates from about 1900
spirits out of the body or make the BCE.
body an uncomfortable place for - This document lists a number of
the spirits to reside-often through disorders, each followed by a
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 physician’s judgment of the cause of often were stunned or even stoned.
the disorder and the appropriate (Maher & Maher 1985).
treatment.
- Several of the disorders apparently Medieval Views (around 400-1400 CE)
left people with unexplainable aches - The Middle Ages are often described
and pains, sadness or distress and as a time of backward thinking
apathy about life such as “a woman dominated by an obsession with
who loves bed; she does not rise and supernatural forces, yet even within
she does not rise and she does not Europe supernatural theories of
shake it”. abnormal behavior did not
- In the Egyptian papyri, the dominate until the late Middle Ages
prescribed treatment for this disorder between the eleventh and fifteenth
involved the use of strong-smelling centuries (Neugebauer, 1979)
substances to drive the uterus back - Prior to the eleventh century, witches
to its proper place. and witchcraft were accepted as
real but were considered mere
Among the Greeks of Hippocrates’ and Plato’s nuisances, overrated by superstitious
time people.
- The relatives of people considered - Severe emotional shock and
insane were encouraged to confine physically illness or injury most often
their afflicted family members to the was seen as the causes of bizarre
home. behaviors.
- The state claimed no responsibility - For example, English court records
for insane people; it provided no attributed mental health problems to
asylums or institutions, other than the factors such as a “blow received on
religious temples, to houses and care the head”, explained that symptoms
for them. were “induced by fear of his father “
- The state could, however, take rights and noted that “he has lost his
away from people declared insane. reason owing a long and incurable
- Relatives could bring suit against infirmity” (Neugebauer, 1979, p. 481)
those they considered insane, and
the state could award the property Witchcraft
of insane people to their relatives. - Beginning in the 11th century, the
- People declared insane could not power of the Catholic Church in
marry or acquire or dispose of their Europe was threatened by the
own property. breakdown of feudalism and by
- Poor people who were considered rebellions.
insane were simply left to roam the - The Church interpreted these threats
streets if they were not violent. in terms of heresy and Satanism.
- If they were violent, they were - The Inquisition was establish originally
locked away. The general public to rid the Earth of religious heretics
greatly feared insanity of any form, but eventually those practicing
and people thought to be insane
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 witchcraft or Satanism also became melancholy, a week imagination, or
the focus of hunts. drowsiness and sleepiness (Sarbin &
- Such people may have been Juhasz, 1967)
experiencing delusions (false beliefs) - The culture so completely accepted
or hallucinations (unreal perceptual the existence of witches and
experiences) which are signs of witchcraft that some perfectly sane
some psychological disorders. people may have self-identifies as
- However, confessions of such witches.
experiences may have been - The distinction between madness
extracted through torture or in and witchcraft continues to this day
exchange for a stay of execution in cultures that believe in witchcraft.
(Spanos, 1978)
- In 1563, Johanne Weyer published Psychic Epidemics
The Deception of Dreams, in which - Defined as a phenomenon in which
he argued that those accused of large numbers of people engage in
being witches were suffering from unusual behaviors that appear to
melancholy (depression) and senility. have a psychological origin.
- The Church banned Weyer’s writings. - During the Middle Ages, reports of
- 20 years later, Reginald Scot, in his dance frenzies or manias were
Discovery of Withccraft (1584) frequent.
supported Weyer’s beliefs: “These - Psychic epidemics are no longer
women are but diseased wretches viewed as the result of spirit
suffering from melancholy and their possession or the bite of a tarantula.
words, actions, reasoning and
gestures show that sickness has The Spread of Asylums
affected their brains and impaired - As early as the 12th century, many
their powers of judgment”. towns in Europe took some
- Again, the Church-joined this times responsibility for housing and caring
by the state-refuted the arguments for people considered mentally ill
and banned Scot’s writings. (Kroll, 1973)
- As is often the case, change came - Remarkable among these towns was
from within. In the 16th century. Gheel, Belgium, where townspeople
- Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun who regularly too into their homes the
was later canonized, explained that mentally ill visiting the shrine of Saint
the mass hysteria that had broken Dymphna for cures.
out among a group of nuns was not - In about the 11th or 12th century,
the work of the devil but was the general hospitals began to include
result of infirmities of sickness. special rooms or facilities for people
- She argued that these nuns were exhibiting abnormal behavior.
comas enferas or “as if sick”
- She sought out natural causes for the
nuns’ strange behaviors and
concluded that they were due to
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As early as the 1200’s they were adequately fed or
- The mentally ill were little more than whether are food was good or bad.
inmates in these early hospitals, - The cells were furnished only with
housed against their will, often in straw and were never swept or
extremely harsh conditions. cleaned; the patient remained in the
- Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem, midst of all the accumulated ordure.
in London, which officially became a - No one visited the cells except at
mental hospital in 1547. feeding time, no provision was made
- This hospital, nicknamed Bedlam, for warmth, and even the most
was famous for its deplorable elementary gestures of humanity
conditions. were lacking.
- As Bedlam and other mental
hospitals established in Europe in the Protection of the Law
16th, 17th and 18th centuries, patients - The laws regarding the confinement
were exhibited to the public for a of the mentally ill in Europe and the
fee. United States were concerned with
- They lived in filth and confinement, the protection of the public and the
often chained to the wall or locked ill person’s relatives (Busfield 1986;
inside small boxes. Scull 1993)
- The following description of the - For example, Dalton’s 1618 edition of
treatment of patients in La Bicetre Common Law states that “it is awful
Hospital, an asylum for male patients for the parents, kinsmen or other
in Paris, provides an example of friends of a man that is mad, or
typical care. frantic… To rake him and put him
- The patients were originally shackled into a house, to bind or chain him,
to the walls of their dark, unlighted and to beat him with rods, and to do
cells by iron collars which held them any other forcible act to reclaim him,
flat against the wall and permitted or to keep hum so he shall do not
little movement. hurt” (Allderudge, 1979)
- Of times there were also iron hoops - The first Act for Regulating
around the waist of the patients and Madhouses in England was passed in
booth their hands and feet were 1774, with the intention of cleaning
chained. up the deplorable conditions in
- Although these chains usually hospitals and madhouses and
permitted enough movement that protecting people from being
the patients could feed themselves unjustly jailed for insanity.
out of bowls, they often kept them - This act provided for the licensing
from being able to lie down at night. and inspection of madhouses and
- Since little was known about required that a physician, a surgeon
dietetics and the patients were or an apothecary sign a certificate
presumed to be animals anyway, before a patient could be admitted.
little attention was paid to whether - The act’s provisions applied only to
paying patients in private
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 madhouses, however, and not to the Philippe Pinel
poor people confined to - A leader of the movement for moral
workhouses. treatment of people with
- These asylums typically were abnormality was Phillippe Pinel.
established and run by people who French physicial who took charge of
thought abnormal behaviors were La Bicetre in Paris in 1793.
medical illnesses. - Pinel argued, “To detain maniacs in
- For example, Benjamin Rush (1745- constant seclusion and to load them
1813), one of the founders of with chains; to leave them
American psychiatry, believed that defenseless, to the brutality of
abnormal behavior was caused by underlings… in a word, to rule them
excessive blood in the brain and with a rod of iron… is a system of
prescribed bleeding the patient, or superintendence, more distinguished
drawing huge amounts of blood for its convenience than for its
from the body. humanity or success.
- Although the supernatural theories of - Pinel believed that many forms of
the Middle Ages have often been abnormality could be cured by
decried as leading to brutal restoring patients’ dignity and
treatment of people with mental tranquility.
illnesses, the medical theories of - Pinel ordered that patients be
those times and of the next couple allowed to walk freely around the
of centuries did not always lead to asylum.
better treatment. - They were provided with clean and
sunny rooms, comfortable sleeping
Moral Treatment in the 18th and 19th Centuries quarters and good food.
- The 18th and 19th centuries saw the - Nurses and professional therapists
growth of a more humane treatment were trained to work with the
of people with mental health patients to help them regain their
problems, a period known as the senses of tranquility and engage in
mental hygiene movement. planned social activities.
- This new treatment was based on - Although many physicians thought
the psychological view that people Pinel himself was mad for releasing
developed problems because they the patients from confinement, his
had become separated from nature approach was remarkably
and had succumbed to the stresses successful.
imposed by the rapid social changes - Many people who had been locked
of the period (Rosen, 1968) away in darkness for decades
- The prescribed treatment, including became able to control their
prayers and incantations was rest behavior and reengage in life.
and relaxation in a serene and - “It is an art of no little importance to
physically appealing place. administer medicines properly: but, it
is an art of much greater and more

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 difficult acquisition to know when to - An Austrian physician who believed
suspend or altogether to omit them. that people have a magnetic fluid in
the body that must be distributed in
Dorothea Dix a particular pattern in order to
- One of the most militant crusaders maintain health.
for moral treatment of the Dorothea - The distribution of magnetic fluid in
Dix (1802-1887) one person could be influences by
- A retired schoolteacher living in the magnetic forces of other people,
Boston, Dix visited a jail on a cold as well as by the alignments of the
Sunday morning in 1841 to teach a planets.
Sunday school class to women
inmates. Mesmerizing
- There she discovered the negligence - His patients sat in darkness around a
and brutality that characterized the tub containing various chemicals,
treatment of poor people exhibiting and the affected areas of their
abnormal behavior, many of whom bodies were prodded by iron rods
were simply warehoused in jails. emerging from the tub.
- With music playing, Mesmer
The Beginnings of Modern Biological emerged wearing an elaborate
Perspectives robe, touching each patient as he
- In 1883, one of Griesinger’s followers, passed by, supposedly realigning
Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), also people’s magnetic fluids though his
published a text emphasizing the own powerful magnetic force.
importance of brain pathology in - His process, Mesmer said, cured
psychological disorders. illness, including psychological
- One of the most important disorders.
discoveries underpinning modern
biological theories of abnormality Birth of Hypnosis
was the discovery of the cause of - Mesmer eventually was labeled a
general paresis, a disease that leads charlatan by a scientific review
to paralysis, insanity and eventually committee that included Benjamin
death (Duffy, 1995) Franklin. Yet his methods, known as
- The discovery that syphilis is the mesmerism continued to fuel
cause of one form of insanity lent debate long after he had faded into
great weight to the idea that obscurity.
biological factors can cause - The “cures” Mesmer effected in his
abnormal behaviors (Duffy, 1995) psychiatric patients were attributed
to the trancelike state that Mesmer
The Psychoanalytic Perspective seemed to induce in his patients.
- The development of psychoanalytic
theory begins with the odd story of Jean Charcot
Franz Anton Mesmer (1735-1815) - Jean Charcot (1825-1859), head of
La Salpetriere Hospital in Paris and
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 the leading neurologist of his time, such as phobias in terms of classical
argued that hysteria was caused by conditioning
degeneration in the brain.
- Bernheim and Liebault showed that The Cognitive Revolution
they could induce the symptoms of - In the 1950s, some psychologists
hysteria, such as paralysis in an arm argued that behaviorism was limited
or the loss of feeling in a leg, by in its explanatory power by its refusal
suggesting these symptoms to to look at internal thought processes
patients who were hypnotized. that mediate the relationship
- Fortunately, they could also remove between stimulus and response.
these symptoms under hypnosis. - It wasn’t until the 1970s that
psychology shifted its focus
Psychoanalysis substantially to the study of
- Charcot was so impressed by the cognitions, thought processes that
evidence that hysteria has influence behavior and emotion.
psychological roots that he became - An important player in this cognition
a leading researcher of the revolution was Albert Bandura, a
psychological causes of abnormal clinical psychologist trained in
behavior. behaviorism who had contributed a
- One of Charcot’s students was great deal to the application of
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), a behaviorism to psychopathology.
Viennese neurologist who went to
study with Charcot in 1885. Albert Ellis
- In the course of this work, Freud - Argued that people prone to
became convinced that much of psychological disorders are plagues
the mental life of an individual by irrational negative assumptions
remains hidden from consciousness. about themselves and the world.
- Ellis developed a therapy for
The Roots of Behaviorism emotional problems based on his
- While psychoanalytic theory was theory called rational-emotive
being born, the roots of behaviorism therapy.
were being planted first in Europe - This therapy was controversial
and then in the United States. because it required therapists to
- Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) a Russian challenge, sometimes harshly.
Physiologist, developed methods
and theories for understanding Aaron Beck
behavior in terms of stimuli and - Another therapy developed by
responses rather than in terms of the Aaron Beck focused on the irrational
internal workings of the unconscious thoughts of people with
mind (classical conditioning) psychological problems.
- Pavlov’s discoveries inspired - Beck’s cognition therapy has
American John Watson (1878-1958) become one of the most widely
to study important human behaviors, used therapies for many disorders.
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Modern Mental Health Care
- Halfway through the 20th century,
major breakthroughs were made in
drug treatments for some of the
major forms of abnormality.
- In particular, the discovery of a class
of drugs that can reduce
hallucinations and delusions, known
as the phenothiazine, made it
possible for many people who had
been institutionalized for years to be
released from asylums and hospitals.
- Since then, there has been an
explosion of new drug therapies for
psychopathology.

Deinstitutionalization
- In 1960s, a large and vocal
movement known as the patients’
rights movement had emerged.
- Patients’ rights advocates argued
that mental patients can recover
more fully or live more satisfying lives
if they are integrated into the
community, with the support of
community-based treatment
facilities a process known as
deinstitutionalization.
- In the United States, the community
mental health movement was
officially launched in 1963 by
President John Kennedy as a “bold
new approach” to mental health
care.
- This movement attempted to
provide coordinated mental health
services to people in community
mental health centers.

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