Bruce Poulsen, in his article in Psychology Today, takes us back to the workings and theories of psychologists who hold opposing views. While psychologists like Freud, Allen Frances and other have centered their studies around mental health and the treatment of mental illness, psychoanalyst Thomas Szasz almost ‘goes too far’ and calls mental illness a myth. In his book, the Myth Of Mental Illness, he writes about antipsychiatry, patient advocate movements and critics the disease model, the medical model of psychaiatry and the disease model for homosexuality. Christopher Moore’s novel, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove makes us wonder about humans dependance on psychiatric experts. The world of psychology and its uses can be explained in the simple words given by Thomas Szasz ‘In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten ; in the human kindgdom, define or be defined’. This is precisely what the DSM tries to the in psychological realm of the world but Szasz finds a way to f...

As I was scrolling through the material put up by Professor Ghosh for this remedial blog post, I stumbled upon a documentary titled “To define Madness”. Intrigued by its name, I decided to watch it. As soon as I hit play the screen came alive with a flurry of people, clearly patients of some mental disorder, talking about themselves. In no particular order images flashed on the screen. One woman stared grimly at me through the lens and said "I will leave, you know. I won't be staying." Another woman laughed in a way that seemed almost demonic, frightening me to the extent that a shiver ran down my spine. 50 seconds into the documentary and I already found myself feeling both intrigued and frightened by the idea of madness, wondering what it truly means to be mad. The documentary traced the history of abnormality, passing through all of its milestones ranging from attributions to supernatural powers, to the present day scientific study of it. What intrigued m...

Rudradeep Guha Remedial post for missed quiz 1 A few thousand years ago, the origin of mental illnesses were a mystery. They were thought to be caused due to possession by evil spirits and thus exorcism, prayers and ‘magic’ were used to attempt to cure them. It was Hippocrates who put forward the idea of brain pathology being the reason for mental disorders. He recognized heredity, predisposition and environmental factors along with physical trauma as possible causes of mental disorders and reinforced his beliefs with detailed records of his patients obtained through clinical observation. He also valued dreams as a way of understanding his patients’ personalities, a practice later extended by the likes of Freud to develop the concept of psychoanalysis. However, despite his progressiveness, Hippocrates was ultimately limited by the poor knowledge of anatomy and physiology in those times. Plato and Aristotle also recognized mental illness as something that could not be controlled an...

Srishti Nagpal Remedial entry for missed quiz 1 Abnormal Psychology is concerned with the nature, causes and treatment of mental disorders. The field of abnormal psychology is also referred to as psychopathology and most of the information regarding it is accumulated through research. Research is at the heart of progress and knowledge in psychopathology. It employs scientific inquiry and careful observation to understand more about different mental disorders.With the development of technology, advances are made exposing clinicians and mental health professionals to newer and more effective treatments. Research is the engine that drives all these developments.Though not every person trained in clinical psychology conducts research, they still rely heavily on their scientific skills and ability to both ask questions and to put information in coherent and logical ways. Clinical researches often rely on a combination of self-report and observation methods. Most clinicians av...

This is a class blog for a 200 level undergraduate core domain course in clinical psychology as part of the psychology major, taught by Simantini Ghosh, PhD, at Ashoka University, Delhi NCR, India. All content is protected by a creative commons license. Please cite appropriately if using any content from here.  Contact: simi@ashoka.edu.in Course Description This course focuses on understanding the phenomenology (description), etiology (causes), and treatment of abnormal behavior. Major psychological syndromes will be discussed along with the current APA classification system (DSM-5) and other classification systems. Genetic, biological, social, and psychological parameters implicated in the etiology of these syndromes will be introduced.  Course Objectives Course Objectives • Understand the merits and limitations of research methods and assessment techniques  for  clinical psychology • Learn basics of critical and analytical skills r...