NINETEENTH -CENTURY VIEWS OF THE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF MENTAL DISORDERS
During the nineteen century mental hospitals were controlled by few people named 'Layperson'. Because of their prominence of moral management in the treatment of 'lunatics'. The medical psychiatrist and professionals were treating the people who were mentally retarded. This abnormal people were known as Alienated or insane.
More over there was no effective treatments available during this century. The only procedures were available were drugging, bleeding and purging which produced few objective results.
The alienists acquired more status and
influence in society and became influential as purveyors of morality.Mental
disorders were understood and conditions such as depression were considered to
be the result of nervous exhaustion problems were caused by depletion of bodily
energies.
When a person puts too much pressure his nerves get shattered this was known as neurasthenia a condition involved pervasive feelings of low mood, lack of energy and physical symptoms related to lifestyle.
Contemporary views of Abnormal behaviour
Great technological discoveries occurred both at home and abroad in the nineteenth century.During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 4 major themes in abnormal psychology were spanned and generated powerful influences on the contemporary perspectives in abnormal psychology.
- Biological discoveries
- The development of a classification system of mental disorders
- Emergence of psychological causationS
- Experimental psychological research development
Biological Discoveries :{Establishing link between the Brain and Mental disorders}.
During this period the study of biological and anatonical factors as underlying both physical and mental disorders were developed.
General paresis and Syphilis
The discovery of a cure for general paresis began in 1825. When the french physician A.L.J.Bayle differentiated general paresis as a specific type of mental disorder.According to the psychiatrists the patients did not develop a secondary symptoms of syphilis.
Brain Pathology as a casual factor
With the emergence of modern experimental science in the early part of the eighteenth century, knowledge of anatomy physiology, neurology, chemistry, and general medicine increased rapidly. disease body organs were one of the cause of physical ailments.It was the one of the net logical step for the research to assume that mental disorder was an illness based on the pathology of an organ . German psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger in his text book The Pathology and Therapy of Psychic disorder, published in 1845 insisted that all mental disorders could be explained in the terms of brain pathology.
The development of a Classification System
Emil kraepelin played a dominant role in the early development of the biological view point. This text Lehrubucher Psychiatrie not only emphasised the importance of these contributions was his system of classification of mental disorder.The most important of these contributions was his system of classification of mental disorders , which became the forerunners of today's DSM-IV-TR.Thus the outcome of the disorder could be predicted, even if it could not yet be controlled.
Causations Views:Establishing the Psychological Basis Mental Disorder
The first major steps taken by Sigmund Freud , most frequently cited psychological theorist of the twentieth century. During five decades observation, treatment and writing. Freud developed a comprehensive theory of psychopathology that emphasised the inner dynamics of unconscious motives. the methods he used for the study and treat patients came to be called as Paychoanyalysis.
Mesmerism :
Franz Anton Mesmer an Austrian physician developed the idea of paracelsus about the influences of planets on the human body.Mesmer believed that the planets affected a universal magnetic fluid on the body , the distribution of which determined health or disease. In attempting to find cure foe mental disorders , Mesmer concluded that all people possessed magnetic forces that could be used to influence the distribution of the magnetic fluid in other people.
The Evolution of the Psychological Research Tradition
This was demonstrated by Wilhelm Wundt and William James.The origins of much of the scientific thinking of contemporary psychology lie in early rigorous efforts to study psychological processes objectively.Although the work of these experimental psychologists did not bear directly on clinical practise or on our understanding of abnormal behaviour, this was clearly influenced a few decades later in moulding the thinking of psychologists who brought these rigorous attitudes into the clinic.
The Behavioural Perspective
In the early twentieth century another school behaviourism emerged out of experimental psychology.Behavioural psychologists believed that the study if subjective experience through the techniques of free association and dream analyses did not provide acceptable scientific data. According to them only the observable behaviour and the stimuli and reinforcing conditions that control it could serve as a basis for formulating scientific principles of human behaviour.
The behavioural perspective is organised around a cenral theme : the role of human behaviour.The learning plays an important role in human behaviour.
Classical conditioning
The origins of the behavioural view of abnormal behaviour and its treatment are tied to experimental work on the type of learning known as classical conditioning. Classical conditioning means a form of neutral stimulus is paired repeatedly with unconditioned behaviour. After repeated pairings the neural stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response. This work began with the discovery of the conditioned reflex by Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov.
American Psychologist John.B. Watson who was searching for an objective ways to study human behaviour,was excited by the discoveries of Pavlov. Watson reasoned that if psychology was to become a true science it would have to abandon the subjectivity of inner sensations and other mental event. Watson thus changed the focus of psychology to the study of overt behaviour rather than theoretical mentalistic constructs , an approach he called behaviourism.He also challenged the psychoanalysts and the more biologically oriented psychologists by suggesting that abnormal behaviour was the product of unfortunate inadvertent earlier conditioning and could be modifies through reconditioning.Thus Watson's approach placed heavy emphasis on the role of social environment in conditioning personality development and behaviour both , normal and abnormal.
Operant conditioning
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