Haritha 1114385

Abnormal psychology: the study of abnormal behavior, including theories and research about causes, assessment, and treatment.

Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be understood as precipitating a mental disorder

Psychopathology: an abnormal pattern of behavior that is unusual, distressing, dysfunctional, and that may cause the sufferer to be dangerous to self or others

1. Nineteenth century  views of the causes and treatment of mental disorders :

In the early nineteenth century,effective treatment were not available for mental disorders because the mental hospitals were controlled by laypersons. And there was prominence of moral management.

Unavailability of effective treatment was a major problem for the mentally retarded/ mental disorders.

Few procedures used by those laypersons were bleeding, drugging and purging, which dint bring out enough objective results on the mental disorders.

 Medical professionals were called as 'alienists' or medical professionals in the 19th century. And these alienists incorporated the traditional moral management into their physical and mental procedures.

In those days, there was no proper understanding of mental disorders as such, and especially disorders like depression were considered to be a result of nervous exhaustion

Early twentieth century is the time when there was attitude change in the mindset of people towards the mental patients.

In the nineteenth century end, the appearance of mental hospitals were actually considered scary because  it had a big fortress kind of appearance and a place where the mental patients lived under harsh surrounding. The general public who visited the mental hospitals, they found it to be an eerie place,and its patients to be a strange and frightening lot. Since the earliest psychiatrists had very little information to impart, they were unable to educate and people and to reduce their fear, and to change their mindset about these mental hospitals and its patients.

As a means to quieten the excited patients, the psychiatrists used bad treatments such as chains and other torture devices.

Mental hospital care in the 19th century:

mental hospitals housed people who were having severe mental problems like paresis, severe alcoholism, schizophrenia, tertiary syphilis, organic mental disorder and depression.

by 1940, the mental hospital housed 4lakh patients. At that point of time, the patients had to stay for a very long period of time, even years. First half of the 20th century, there was very little effective treatment and the care was often harsh, punitive and inhumane. 1946 was marked as an year of change since the release of a very influential book published by Mary Jane Ward brought about attention to the problems of the mental patients and helped them in the change of treatment to more humane kind.

In 1946 itself, The National Institutes of Mental Health was organized, and it provided research and training and even clinical psychology training programs. In this period, Hill-Burton Act funded mental hospitals, it also helped in creating outpatient psychiatric clinics, inpatient facilities, community consultation, and rehabilitation programs.

During 1950's and 1960's there was necessity for reform in psychiatric hospitals was a major concern for many professionals and laypersons. In the later decades of 20th century, our society had gained respect to the means of providing humane care for the mentally ill in the hospital environment. 

Contemporary views:
Great technological advances occurred during the later years of 19th century, which led to the application of scientific knowledge to the treatment of disturbed individuals. There were great Biological discoveries made by establishing the link between the brain and the mental disorder.
Next came the discovery of brain pathology as a reason for mental disorder, following that came the disorders caused by toxic substances such as lead, and certain types of mental retardation and other mental illnesses were discovered.
In the early part of 18th century, knowledge of anatomy, neurology, physiology, chemistry, general medicines came into greater circle. These kind of discoveries  led to biological/organic pathology which had physical ailments.

Psychiatric classification system which was developed by Kraepelin played a very important role in the development of biological viewpoint.

Sigmund Freud was the first person to take major steps in understanding psychological factors in mental disorders. Only in the latter 19th century scientific investigation into psychological factors and human behavior began.

Emergence of behaviorism as the most important model in abnormal psychology which consisted of a central theme -"Learning plays and important role in behavior" This concept has given the most important implication for explaining and treating maladaptive behavior.

Reference: 

• Abnormal Psychology 13th edition by Carson, Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley