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The development of the Psychological Basis of Mental Disorder
There was the development of the psychological factors in mental disorder. The first major step was taken by Sigmund Freud who developed a comprehensive theory of psychoanalytic. The method he used to study and treat the patients was called psychoanalysis. There developed the study of hypnosis, especially in relation to hysteria.

Mesmerism
Franz Anton started our efforts to understand psychological causation of mental disorder who further developed the idea of Paracelsus about planets on the human body. He believed that the planets affected a universal magnetic fluid in our body, the distribution of which determined health or diseases. In order to find cures for mental disorder he concluded that all people possessed magnetic forces that could be used to influence the distribution of magnetic fluid in other people, thus effecting cures.
He also treated all the patients using ‘animal magnetism’ through which he was able to remove hysterical anesthesia and paralyses. He later also demonstrated most of the phenomena connected with the use of hypnosis.

The Nancy school
Ambrose August L, a French physician who practiced in the town of Nancy, used hypnosis successfully in his practice.  A professor at Nancy named Hippolyte Bernheim became interested in the relationship between hysteria and hypnosis. Both the physicians worked together to develop the hypothesis that hypnotism and hysteria were related and both were due suggestion.
Jean Charcot was experimenting with some of the phenomena described by the mesmerists and  as a result disagreed with the findings of the Nancy School and insisted  that degenerative brain changes lead to hysteria. His finding was proved wrong but further work on this lead to awakening medical and scientific interest in hysteria.

The Beginning of Psychoanalysis
Freud who was a lecturer on nervous diseases at the University of Vienna studied under Charcot in 1885 and became interested by their use of hypnosis with hysteria patients and came away convinced that mental processes could remain hidden from consciousness.
Freud later worked in collaboration with Josef Breuer who had incorporated an interesting use of hypnosis with his patients by directing his patients to talk freely about their problems when under hypnosis. The patients experienced catharsis- emotional release when waking up from hypnosis. Thus this helped the patients in finding the relationship between their problems and their hysterical symptoms. This led to the discovery of the unconscious- hidden urges which the person is unaware which determines behavior.
Two methods helped them understand patients conscious and unconscious thought processes. First is free association- allowing the patient to talk freely thereby providing information about the feelings, desire and so forth. Second is dream analysis having patients record and describe their dreams.

The Evolution of the Psychological Research Tradition: Experimental Psychology
The origins of much of the scientific thinking in contemporary psychology lie in the efforts of Wilhelm Wundt and William James.

The early Psychology Laboratories
The first experimental psychology laboratory was established by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. Wundt and his colleagues devised many experimental methods and strategies after studying factors involving the memory and sensation. He influenced the empirical study of abnormal psychology; they followed his methods and also applied his strategies to the clinical studies. J McKeen Cattell used it to assess individual mental processing. Another student Lightner Witmer established the first American psychological clinic which focuses on the problems of mentally deficient children in terms of both research and therapy. Chicago Juvenile Psychopathic Institute established in 1909 by William Healy was the first to view juvenile delinquency as a symptom of urbanization and not as result of inner psychological problems. Thus by the 20th century we had the emergence of many clinics and laboratories.
The behavioral perspective
Bahaviorists believed that the study of the techniques of free association and dream analysis din not provide acceptable scientific data as the behavior was not observable in nature. Thus observable behavior and stimuli reinforcing conditions that control it could serve as a basis for formulating scientific principles of human behavior.
Classical Conditioning
Is a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus is paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits an unconditioned behavior. After repeated pairing the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response. This work began with the discovery of the conditioned reflex by Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov. This experiment was demonstrated on a dog. And a bell was rung and each time the meat was presented and the dog salivated. Thus this ringing of the bell conditioned the dog to assume that the meat would be presented and hence the dog would salivate.
American psychologist John B Watson changed the focus of psychology to the study of overt behavior rather than the study of theoretical mentalistic constructs he called behaviorism. His approach had a great emphasis on the role of the social environmental in conditioning personality development and behavior both normal and abnormal.
Operant Conditioning
E L Thorndike and B F Skinner were exploring one in which the consequences of behavior influence behavior.  Behavior that operates on the environment may be instrumental in producing certain outcomes, in turn, determine the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated on similar occasions. He studied cats and their response to the pulling of a chain if that response was followed by food. This type of learning was called instrumental conditioning and now is called classical conditioning by Sinner.