Remedial Blog Post for missed quiz on Personality Disorders. By Ragini Chatterjee Personality Disorders are inflexible, pervasive, distorted behavior patterns and traits that result in maladaptive ways in perceiving, thinking about or relating to other people and the environment. They are formally known as character disorders. People diagnosed with these disorders tend to have problems in interpersonal relationships and having a stable ‘sense of self'. There have been difficulties in doing research on personality disorders as there are difficulties in diagnosing these disorders and studying cases of personality disorders. It is difficult to diagnose these disorders as the criteria for diagnosis isn't as sharply defined. This is because their diagnosis depends on inferred traits rather that objective behavioral standards (like with the case of panic attacks). The difficulties in studying personality disorders stem from high levels of comorbidity associated with personalit...

In this article, S. Haque Nizamie and Nishant Goyal detail the ways the discipline of psychiatry has developed over centuries in India starting from the Vedic period to the present day. A number of ancient Indian texts, as it turns out, provide mention and even detailed descriptions of psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia - in fact Nizamie and Goyal state that Indian texts contain the earliest mentions of mental illness. This is quite ironic considering the lack of awareness regarding mental health and illness in the country today. Of course, some of these mentions were apparently colored by superstition - for instance, the  Atharva Veda  suggests that mental illness could be a result of divine curses, a belief that was also paralleled in Ancient Rome. However, it seems that for the most part, the ancient Indian outlook on mental illness was rational, with texts such as the  Unani  describing types and subtypes of disorders. Centuries later, under th...

Vedika Jogani Remedial for quiz 10 Mental Health and the law: An overview and the need to develop and strengthen the discipline of forensic psychiatry The given article talks of forensic psychiatry, the need to develop better intuitions in India and the means of going about it. Forensic psychiatry, as defined by Pollack is a broad and general field in which psychiatry theories, concepts, principles, and practices are applied to any and all legal systems. It is a sub specialty of psychiatry related to criminology. It is a common based fact that people with mental disorders are vulnerable to abuse and violation. This violation can be stemmed from family members, care givers, loved ones etc. Hence, to ensure a good mental health of these vulnerable individuals proper and advised care needs to be given. The article talks about ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ laws. Hard laws are the ones that are binding and enforceable internationally and domestically. While, ‘soft’ laws are those laws that ar...

Krishna Lal Remedial for quiz 3 Freud's Theory of Human Nature The lecture on Freud’s theory of human nature begins with highlighting similarities and differences between Freud and Karl Marx. Although they never met, when the put are in dialogue together, profound notes are picked up on their views on human nature. They were both raised in Jewish household but distanced themselves from religion. Marx famously termed religion as the opium of the masses. Both of them were heavily influenced by Germanic culture, and believed strongly in the ideals of science. Freud was a physician and Marx a social scientist. Marx believed that his theories had strong scientific bases. Perhaps most interesting, both their philosophies were influenced by moralistic views of humanity.   To this extent there are similarities, however the differences in their philosophies provide a more interesting ground for dialogue. Something I never knew and found interesting was that Marx could be unde...

By Ragini Chatterjee (Overall Grade Remedial)                                                                    The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 outlines rights that definitely improve the judicial status of the mentally ill. The Act starts with defining certain terms that are found later, throughout the act. The act adheres to international standards with the aim of securing the rights of people with mental illness in accordance with the   United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), as stated in the first three paragraphs. The Act has replaced the previous 1937 Act. In this review of the Act, I shall start by ...

Ananya Iyer Remedial for missed quiz 1 Remedial entry for quiz1.  What on the outside is just a tall, brick structure in modern times is used as a   shield by society against the “lunacy” that lies within. The concept of an institution that houses and treats mentally ill individuals, or a mental asylum,   has come a long way from its initial, primal conception. Jonathan Miller’s documentary “Out of Sight” tries to explain this evolution by analyzing not only the actual institution, but also the social, political, economic scenarios of the time. He also introduces figures who introduced radical changes in the field of psychoanalysis and therapy, and explains the impact that each had on the treatment of mental health and the development of psychological perspectives to their current form. The earliest predecessor to the mental asylum was built Greece, sanctuaries called Epidauros. Miller starts from the Middle to early Modern Ages, wherein the first instances of...

Are mental illnesses "myths"? - Shruti Kirti Shrivastava In his article, titled Revisiting the Myths of Mental Illness and Thomas Szasz , Dr. Bruce Poulson highlights the dynamic nature of the perceptions of mental illnesses even in the present-day scenario of increasing acceptance of mental illnesses and decreasing stigma surrounding the topic. Moreover, he emphasizes on the need to find a middle ground between the two extremes regarding such a perception- one of complete dismissal of the validity of the concept of mental illness, and one where excessive categorization has led to over-dependence on methods of treatments ranging from psychiatry to therapy. While Szasz holds very radical beliefs about the ‘myth of mental illnesses’, his ideas highlight a crucial, albeit subtle, point about the “ medical model for  understanding   human struggles and difficulties”. (Poulson 2012) The classification and the use of diagnostic models for understanding mental illnesse...