Psychological Disorders: 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011

#10: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition where patients have irrational fears in general that causes them to produce repetitive behavior to relieve anxiety. Said patients combine thoughts, otherwise known as obsessions, with behaviors or compulsions and frequently repeat themselves on a daily basis so much that it hampers a regular day. Common symptoms of OCD patients are repetitive hand washing, a need for even numbers, unnecessary hoarding, a need for cleanliness etc. Patients diagnoses with the disorder typically alienate themselves and are socially unfit to interact with the environment so much that individuals might not be able to hold certain jobs or perform certain tasks due to their irrational fears or paranoia.

As can be noted of other psychological disorders, those who had irrational obsessions in the past were thought of being possessed or controlled by the devil, so earlier records are harder to interpret fiction from reality. One of the first cases of OCD was documented by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud in 1910 who believed that obsessive-compulsive behavior was prevalent because a patient had unconscious conflicts that they are unable to deal with so they divert these conflicts into compulsions. He also believed that these obsessions stemmed from childhood experiences where behaviors were either lauded or stigmatized so the individual learned to either repeat their behaviors or correct themselves before attempting the behaviors. Symptoms of OCD are common in the American population and are also quite prevalent in countries across the globe. In many ways, OCD creates a moment of temporary utopia when a patient sees a potential dystopia such as filthy hands. To relieve the stress and prevent the dystopia, the patient will wash their hands and seek a utopia where their fear is banished. However, said relief is only temporary and could possibly considered to be a heterotopias in the action of washing hands because there is no said place for it and yet it exists out of normal time.

The following clip demonstrates how devasting this disorder can be from a first hand perspective.

Works Cited:

M. A. Jenike; Baer, L.; & W. E. Minichiello. Obsessive Compulsive Disorders: Theory and Management. Littleton, MA: PSG Publishing, 1986.

Spitzer, Robert L. DSM-IV-TR Casebook: a Learning Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Pub., 2002. Print.

#9: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Dissociative identity disorder or what was once known as multiple personality disorder is characterized by an individual who emanates multiple different identities, each with its own pattern of thought and way of interacting with the patient’s environment. To be classified as having this disorder, an individual needs to have at least two personalities that alternate taking control of the person’s body according to the DSM-IV. The person being afflicted by the disorder typically experiences memory loss that goes beyond regular forgetfulness, but rather whole memories of their past are suppressed. Patients typically experience comorbidity with other diseases such as depression.

In the past, people who had multiple personalities typically were considered to be possessed, but one of the first real documentations was found from 19^th century when psychiatrists tried hypnosis on their patients and found that different “personalities” emerged during hypnosis that were not present regularly. In 1893, one particular case of Louis Vive was documented of how the boy was attacked by a viper and experienced different “split selves” and was the basis of many papers of that time. One of the first individuals actually diagnosed with the disorder and treated scientifically was Clara Norton Fowler by neurologist Morton Prince between 1898 and 1904. However, often times patients are misdiagnosed with this disorder when in fact they have schizophrenia as legitimate documentation of this disorder has waned in modern years. However, public interest in this disorder has led to many famous books and movies. In many ways, people are fascinated with the idea that an individual can bottle themselves into separate vessels of information in order to create a false utopia in which the individual does not have to deal with the traumatic event that most likely cause the disorder to come about. By suppressing these bad memories, individuals resort to personalities to best help them relieve the pain caused from these traumatic events making their worlds an image of perfection where their pain does not exist and, in most cases, neither does their memories from their split personalities.

As mentioned previously, due to the public interest in this fascinating disorder, movies and television programs have been created to further delve into what it is like for a patient experiencing DID. The following clip is a promotional trailer for a modern program that follows the life of a patient diagnosed with DID with a more comical perspective. As can be seen briefly from the trailer, DID can be a serious disorder that can quite literally separate a person into fractions of a perfect person as each individual in the clip represents a part of the principle character Tara's desire to be complete. One character represents Tara's desire to be a perfect mother, one character represents Tara's desire to be a perfect rebel to society or free spirit, and another character represents Tara's desire to be a perfect leader. While one might question how Tara could ever possibly want to be man, it is my interpretation that it is not her desire to be the opposite sex rather it is her wanting to be in complete control of herself and her surroundings. This characteristic fo being controlling is something that the character known as 'Buck' has that Tara, as well as other DID patients, want in their lives as they want to be integrated into one complete human being as opposed to mirror images of an incomplete vessel.

Works Cited:

Borch-Jacobsen M, Brick D (2000). "How to predict the past: from trauma to repression". History of Psychiatry

Van der Kolk BA, Van der Hart O (December 1989). "Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma" Am J Psychiatry 146 (12): 1530–40

#8: Schizophrenia

Probably one of the most misunderstood disorders, schizophrenia is characterized by a distorted thought processes that typically leads to paranoia, grandeur delusions, hallucinations, and muffled or slurred speech. Patients experiencing the disorder typically have trouble communicating with others and are socially dysfunctional. This disorder is seen in .3-.7% of the world population and is commonly confused with dissociative identity disorder. While the name, looking from the Greek roots, means “split mind”, that is not the case of patients’ personalities, but rather patients have a split thought process when making day to day decisions. Those diagnosed with this disorder tend experience other psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders.

In 1797, James Tilly Matthews first noted this condition as a patient of his had irrational sporadic behavior that was typically uncontrollable. In 1853, it was described as a condition that typically affected young adults and teenagers by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin who also believed it was an early form of dementia caused by a disease of the brain. The term schizophrenia, though derived from its Greek roots, was first widely used by acclaimed psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908 who wished to describe the symptoms of his patients who experienced split thinking, memory, perception, and personality. Bleuler felt that they four main symptoms of the disorder were characterized by the four A’s: Autism, Ambivalence, flattened Affect, and impaired Association of images and language. Bleuler actually discovered that patients were recovering during treatment rather than deteriorating so he concluded that it was not a form of dementia that is characterized by the opposite. Though his term was confusing to many since they associated “split mind” with split personality, it has later been clarified that while patients might hear distinct voices or see certain personalities, the patients themselves do not change their voices rather it is all a battle within the mind. Said “battle” has in many ways created a dystopic world for many patients who experience a world of constant fear of persecution.

The following video talks about the disorder from the perspective of an actual patient diagnosed with the disorder.

Works Cited:

Heinrichs RW. “Historical origins of schizophrenia: two early madmen and their illness”. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 2003;39(4):349–63

Stotz-Ingenlath, Gabriele. "Epistemological Aspects of Eugen Bleuler's Conception of Schizophrenia in 1911." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 3.2 (2000): 153-59. Print.

#7: Bipolar Disorder

Depression is considered to be unipolar disorder so it would only be fitting to talk about Bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder or manic depressive disorder is characterized by a patient who experiences multiple episodes of high mental awareness and energy followed by episodes of great disinterest and low self esteem in a repeating cycle. These episodes of high self esteem are considered to be manic states while the episodes of low self esteem are considered to be depressive states hence the appropriate name. In a typical case, the patient will experience a normal state in between these vastly different mental states though a more severe case of manic depressive disorder could be in rapid cycles where the individual is either very enthusiastic or very melancholic.

It is noted that in a study based in the US 1% of the population is diagnosed with this disorder. Early signs of this disorder in history can be traced back to the time of ancient Greek where medical philosopher Aretaeus of Cappadocia mentioned in his texts originating sometime between 30 and 150AD that some of his patients experiences severe mood swings and he believed that these symptoms originated from black vile (a thought that is now proven false by modern studies of the disorder). Modern depiction of this disorder leads back to the 1850’s were French psychologists noted patients experiencing states of melancholia and mania though the term was not formed until the late nineteenth century by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. Depression and Bipolar disorder are commonly mismatched based upon symptoms and how recurrent they are in patients though psychiatrist Karl Leonhard observed several distinctive characteristics of the two such as the length of episodes of depression in 1957 to help address the differences between the two diagnoses. Though disorder has been quite perplexing to many psychiatrists, it can be observed that patients experiencing the disorder create states of euphoria or dysphasia depending upon their moods.

The following image demonstrates common symptoms of patients during their manic stages and depressive stages of the disorder to help better illustrate what people with the diagnosis are dealing with on a day to day basis.
bipolar disorder symptoms Bipolar Disorder Symptoms

bipolar disorder symptoms Bipolar Disorder Symptoms

Works Cited:

Bowden M.D., Charles L. "Strategies to Reduce Misdiagnosis of Bipolar Depression." American Psychiatric Association 52 (2001): 51-55. Print.

Marneros, Andreas, and Frederick K. Goodwin. "Bipolar Disorders Beyond Major Depression and Euphoric Mania." Cambridge University Press (2005). Print.

"Bipolar Disorder Symptoms & Bipolar Depression | CureAnxiety.com." Cure Anxiety -What is Anxiety,Bipolar Disorder Symptoms, Depression Medication,Bipolar Disease,Natural Sleep Aids. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://cureanxiety.com/bipolar-disorder-symptoms>.

#6: Depression

One of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in the US is major depressive disorder or depression. Depression is characterized by a loss of less esteem or self worth in which the person no longer feels interested in day to day activities. In many ways, most people experience symptoms of depression on recurrently following traumatic events or day-to-day mishaps. This disorder is commonly misdiagnosed for patients who have major depressive disorder experience recurrent depressed feelings that do not necessarily need day to day triggers and in rare cases cant last months or even years.

People who experience depression are prone to several other symptoms or psychological disorders. For instance, a patient who is experiencing prolonged depression could experience delusions or hallucinations, common symptoms of those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Typically patients will experience insomnia or thoughts of suicide which can be suppressed by antidepressants though studies have shown that they are not always effective. Many great people in history have dealt with psychological disorders. One famous painter Vincent Van Gogh experienced this disorder in his later years that would eventually lead to his death. One of his famous paintings At Eternity’s Gate (1890) depicts his depression upon release from a psychiatric ward. It was noted following this painting, the artist became at times unable and unwilling to paint that would eventually be following by his own suicide in 1890. Looking more carefully at the portrait, one can note the main characteristic features of this disorder as depicted in the painting. Clearly the man is covered in blue, uninteresting attire common to patients who are “feeling blue” or uninterested or unable to dress themselves properly. His posture is reminiscent of the fetal position, one that people take in times of great sorrow and his face is a pale shade of green possibly indicating his lack of self worth or his feelings of being unimportant.

Works Cited:

"Boz — Flog » At Eternity’s Gate ." Boz — Flog. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://boz.bloboz.net/2010/08/14/at-eternitys-gate/>.
Hulsker, Jan, Jan Hulsker, and James M. Miller. Vincent and Theo Van Gogh: a Dual Biography. Ann Arbor: Fuller Publications, 1990. Print.

#5: Psychological Disorders

One of the most fascinating fields in psychology is psychological disorders. What had once befuddled humans of past civilizations is now being unraveled that has both astounded and disgusted all walks of life. A psychological disorder is one characterized by abnormal patterns or behaviors (due to stress) that are not common in typical society. Currently there are two major manuals of classification to help diagnosis illness: the DSM-IV, created by the American Psychiatric Association, and the ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and Behavioral Disorders, created by the World Health Organization.

The main categories to which psychological disorders are divided among are mental retardation, neurological disorders, and learning disabilities. Disorders can come in many different forms due to multiple variety of stress. For example, one type of disorder is to due anxiety and typically leads to irrational phobias that causes and individual’s lifestyle to be severely limited. Such disorders generally lead to social isolation and paranoia that can often lead to self destruction and mental inability to cope with life itself. The purpose of diagnosing psychological disorders is not to stigmatize people but rather to find fault in their mental schema in hopes of helping them to adjust to their stress and “integrate” with society. Some of the most interesting individuals who have ever live have themselves been diagnosed with symptoms of psychological disorders and can be considered great works of marvel. While many might think that having a mental disorder is a curse, in some rare cases it has been a gift (such as several cases with savants) or that having a mental disorder has led individuals to reach enlightenment both mentally and spiritually. Unlocking some of the more intriguing psychological disorders such as schizophrenia has been challenging, but understanding the disorder from both the psychiatrist and the individual can help us discover that mental disorders are typically dystopias encased in the mind that many people often struggle to pull themselves out of. After all, most psychological disorders arise from a person's inability to cope with life as most people diagnosed will create for themselves these mental environments that in most cases leads them to live a life of fear of persectution and depression and could ultimately lead to death.

The following clip talks a little more about the history of psychological disorders and how they were viewed in society.

Works Cited

Insel, T. R., and P. S. Wang. "Rethinking Mental Illness." JAMA 303 (2010). Print.

#4: DSM-IV-TR

Anyone taking a general course in psychology has probably heard of the DSM-IV-TR or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Edition Four Text Revised. This book is constantly being update and outlines all psychological disorders that modern psychologists recognize which might suggest that psychologists' understand of psychological disorders is changing over time as more studies are performed to better understand what is a 'disorder' as opposed to what is a different approach to life. Since it is not the original volume, it can be noted that the book is constantly adding new disorders or removing misdiagnosed mental illnesses such as homosexuality. Without understanding this book, you cannot truly begin to comprehend the complexities of many of the illness listed within.

The DSM was first written in 1952 following World War II when psychiatrists were in high demand. Upon completion of the war, many of the soldiers were experiencing unusual symptoms and army officials were concerned that the war had drastically changed the men so psychiatrists were called in to determine if the veterans were capable or incapable of future duties. Initially, psychiatrists were instructed to follow the Medical 203 manual, but it was found that it was insufficient to diagnosis some of some cases were no physical damage was noticeable, but rather mental damage had been apparent. For the first time, a manual had been created to not only diagnosis physical ailments, but mental illnesses as well.

An interesting thing to note about the DSM is how drastically it has changed over the years. For example, in the DSM I, homosexuality had a been considered a mental disorder for it had been thought of being an irrational desire for the same sex that was later disproved and taken out upon the second edition of the DSM. The second edition had included more of a biological basis for classifying certain disorders as opposed to the traditional psychoanalytic approach to classify patients as being mentally ill. In the DSM III, psychiatrists looked more to experiments to find new diseases as new categories were formed and old categories were reclassified to include other hereditary factors that were not previously mentioned. The DSM IV, and most current edition, lists over 250 disorders in a span of 886 pages put together by over 20 leading psychiatrists. This manual has become the staple for diagnosing mental illness around the globe.

Works Cited

Spitzer, R. L. "Classification of Psychiatric Disorders." JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 294.15 (2005): 1898-899. Print.

Houts, Arthur C. "Fifty Years of Psychiatric Nomenclature: Reflections on the 1943 War Department Technical Bulletin, Medical 203." Journal of Clinical Psychology 56.7 (2000): 935-67. Print.
"Institute for Nearly Genuine Research: Chemical Imbalance NOS." Institute for Nearly Genuine Research . N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/

#3: Sigmund Freud

If you’re going to talk about psychology, you cannot forget to mention one of the most famous psychologists: Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud is thought to be one of the great contributors to the field of psychology based on his research on the unconscious mind, a key component into unlocking multiple psychological disorders. Born in Freiberg, Austria, Freud lived in a time of scientific innovation where even the most humble of scientists were asking the boldest of questions and slowly enough, those questions were being answered. Freud was most famous for his technique of psychoanalysis for he believed that people suppress thoughts that are difficult to handle and banish them to the unconscious mind, which he believe, was the key to unlocking a person’s true nature or values.

Freud originally worked with a world renowned neurologist who used techniques such as hypnosis to treat patients. However, Freud felt that hypnosis was not effective for all patients and preferred talking to his patients more to treat them. One of the major things that Freud believed in was that the human psyche consists of three main parts: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. The super-ego was believed to be the moral part of human personality that always believes that what is morally sound should always be the choice of action. The id was the exact opposite in that it relies purely on action and impulse while the ego was meant to be the balance between both an irrational and rational thought process and was reflected to the world for the most part. Freud felt that the best ways to unlocking the things displaced or repressed from the ego was through dream analysis and free association. Despite all his contributions to the field of psychology, many people feel that his rational for some behaviors is quite unreasonable and that perhaps some of the symptoms patients supposedly had due to repressed memories were in fact his own displacement of his feelings toward his mother and childhood.

Works Cited

Hergenhahn, B. R. An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Australia: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. Print.

Hersall, David. History of Psychology. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1984. Print.
" Ellen L.'s Harry Potter Class Blog." Ellen L.'s Harry Potter Class Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://ellenalamont.wordpress.com

#2: Philosophy

The earliest evidence of psychology as a field of thought can probably be traced back to the classical era when one of the main arguments that philosophers were conflicted with was the concept of being vs. becoming. Those who believed in the concept ‘being’ felt that there were certain eternal truths about society that cannot be changed whereas those supporting the concept ‘becoming’ felt that the universe is perpetually changing as is the human race. One famous philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (500B.C.E) proclaimed the famous quote “no one ever steps in the same river twice,” supporting the concept of ‘becoming.’ From this philosophy, many other scholars were realizing permanence is only a temporary thing and as this new pool of thought came into being, people saw that there is a ‘Way of Seeming’ as opposed to a ‘Way of Truth’ as proclaimed by Parmenides of Elea (475B.C.E). This notion perpetuated into the generations of Socrates and Aristotle as philosophers began to see that the human mind is ‘becoming’ rather than it being a stable object.

Plato first spawned the thought that the object of knowledge lasts forever and cannot be changed and that these objects can be considered ‘knowledge of form’ or of things that are imperfect leading to him to believe that humans themselves are imperfect forms of truth. Plato created this metaphor that helps describe life as being divided among the intelligible world and world of appearances as illustrated in the diagram. While primitive, it did give a general basis for future branches of psychology. In future blog posts, you will learn more about how the first psychological experiments began and how people began to see that humans are far from this thought of ‘forms of truth’ and were in fact quite imperfect as disorders in human personalities and mind sets were noticed.

Works Cited

Leahey, Thomas H. A History of Psychology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1980. Print.

#1: Early Roots

As the name would suggest, psychology is the study of the mind or rather the science behind thought processes. Psychology is an ever growing field and is one of the most popular majors college students will choose upon enrollment. However, most people don’t understand the roots of psychology or how it came to be. The purpose of this blog is to not only inform about psychology, but to also give a history behind the field and how it came to be the prominent field of science that it is today. In addition to talking about the general history of psychology, this blog will go over some of the most fascinating psychological disorders in separate blog posts. This blog is not only meant to inform, but to also show how psychology could also be related to the study of heterotopias and the mind in itself is a heterotopias.

The first evidence of psychology as a field of science can be dated back to the times of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Evidence was found that in the Eighth Century, Islamic physicians had been performing a primitive form of psychotherapy on patients with distraught ways of thinking in what can be considered psychiatric centers in Morocco. In Egypt, archeologists have discovered the Edwin Smith Papyrus, a book from ancient Egyptian civilizations that contains about 50 different cures for mental conditions. This book is believed to be the first form of written text on psychology and how to treat patients with mental illnesses. However, the term psychology was believed to be coined in Ancient Greece from the Greek roots psyche- meaning “the breath of life” and -ology meaning “the study of”. The three main concepts believed to comprise psychology were psyche or the vital principle of life, thymos or the motivational principle behind action and feeling, and nous or the organ for clear perception of truth. These three concepts came upon observation of the human body and mind as studied by philosophers. It was believed that these three helped govern a persons life and will to live and some philosophers believed that the weak minded were typically lacking in one of these principles. While most of these so-called ‘logics’ are proven false today, this was the first evidence of people really trying to understand the workings behind the human mind as the branch of psychology as a science began.

Works Cited

Leahey, Thomas H. A History of Psychology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1980. Print.

Syed, Ibrahim B. "Islamic Medicine: 1000 Years Ahead of Its times." Journal of the Islamic Medical Association (2002): 2-9. Print.
"Welcome to OSU Psychology | Department of Psychology | Oregon State University | Psychology Picture." Oregon State University. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://oregonstate.edu/cla/psychology/