Vasudha Bedi Grey's Anatomy brings up the topic of mental health in an authentic, unglamorous way. It forces us to deal with the fact that, in the words of its protagonist Meredith Grey, "not everybody has to be happy all the time. That's not mental health. It's crap." The characters don't shy away from discussing their mental health as is evident from a conversation that takes place between Meredith and her friend, Christina about being in, what they call, the 'dark place.' The show's portrayal of the therapeutic setting draws attention to the fact that "people need and deserve support through their dark night of the soul. They need a psychologically meaningful method to confront their metaphorical devils and demons" (Diamond, 2008).  The depiction of psychotherapy in the show is a far cry from how therapy actually takes place. The constant probing and prodding done by the therapist not only go against the standards set for ef...

Tanya Battiwalla According to the American Psychiatric Association (2019), ‘Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties.’ As mentioned in the book Abnormal Psychology (2017), psychotherapy is designed in such a way that it not only gives a person the opportunity to talk but also develops new understandings and behaviors in the client. Psychotherapy is different from informally talking things over with a relative or friends because psychotherapy is an intervention that is deliberately planned and systematically guided by theoretical principles. According to the American Psychological Association (2017), one of psychotherapy’s aims is to help people find relief from emotional distress, for example when they are anxious. It also intends to help find solutions to the problems in people’s lives which can range from family issues to dealing with failure or job dissatisfaction. The APA highlights another imp...

Mehak Vohra The depiction of anxiety disorders in books and movies makes a difference in the perception of these disorders as a whole and how they are treated. Only recently have we begun to see anxiety disorders being depicted in mainstream media. The stigma and taboo around mental disorders and therapy remains prevalent all around the world. It is also extremely difficult to represent these disorders accurately in a sensitive manner, without romanticizing the disorder or dismissing it. Author John Green, who has previously spoken about suffering from Obsessive-compulsive disorder himself, depicts the disorder as accompanied by terrible anxiety in his latest book ‘Turtles All The Way Down’, through the narrator Aza Holmes’ thought process. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (referred to as OCD henceforth) is defined by the occurrence of obsessive thoughts and the compulsive behaviours performed in an attempt to neutralize such thoughts. Obsessions are persistent and recurrent intrus...

Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology The case of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Social Neuroscience is a relatively new area of study under the umbrella of psychology, and is to-date quite an effective one. It is used in the fields of economics (to understand social decision making), health (influence of social interactions, the empathy and support one receives), as well as law (to understand punishment and moral reasoning). Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field which presents forth the discussion between biological processes and social interactions- once thought to be completely unrelated fields. This newer understanding of human psychology leads to better understanding of the working of the human mind as well as more innovative solutions to mental disorders. Here, I will discuss one of those disorders- ASD and the concept of the Social Brain. The social brain and ASD co-relate this correlation and its implications require furthers research. The under...

The term 'penis envy' was coined by Sigmund Freud as part of his theory of psychosexual development. This theory argues that a child progresses through five stages namely, the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital. On way to evolving into a healthy adult, a child has to negotiate each of these stages of sexual tension. In his 1908 article "On the Sexual Theories of Children", Freud explains penis envy as the jealousy, deprivation, and inferiority supposedly experienced by female children on the realization of their biological lack of a penis. With little to no empirical or clinical evidence, Freud’s interpretation not only proved to be unreliable and controversial within the field of child psychology but portrayed the limited existence of research on female sexuality. In this blog post, I argue that Freud, by giving biological explanations, neglects socio-cultural and environmental factors to explain the tendency of inferiority within women vis a...

Shreya Singh  Alcohol addiction and substance abuse is as issue dealt with and made the central theme in various movies and television shows. The accuracy of the depiction, however, may vary. This blog post looks to present an argument in support of the accuracy of the portrayal of Alcohol use disorder (AUD), the causes for it, and the repercussions it has in the Television show Mom . The paper “Neurotransmitters in alcoholism” (Genet, 2014) discusses the role of neurotransmitters in alcohol addiction because of their imbalance in the brain. Alcohol addiction either involves a positive reinforcement in which the environment has a rewarding stimulus that encourages the behaviour. Or it may be due to a negative reinforcement, in which case alcohol ingestion is being encouraged as it allows the person to avoid aversive stimulus. This causes widespread neuroadaptations in the brain. The paper goes on to talk about the dopamine pathway. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved...

Saumya Sethi “ When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affects your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker ” (Lawson, 2015) The author Jenny Lawson in her book ‘Furiously Happy’ describes her life long battle with crippling depression and anxiety. Her implicit experiences of her depression and anxiety cannot be explained by one world solely.  The schools of psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, psychiatry cannot offer reasoning for such psychophysiological phenomena in isolation of one another. Neuroscience in psychology appears captivating with its potential for explaining all human behaviour through biological processes with a grand unified theory however neuroscie...

Devika Jamkhedkar  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter of the brain that is necessary for activities like habit formation and behaviour motivation (" Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction" 2018). After research revealed that it is involved in addiction, media outlets and pop psychology have perceived dopamine itself as the main cause of addiction. Popular thought suggest that addicts should seek to allay the neurotransmitter’s release, instead of the addictive stimulus. These views have clouded popular thought, but cover only some scientific facts regarding dopamine and its effects. Dopamine is a chemical necessary for all habit formation and is not the root cause of addiction.  The brain has various mechanisms to recall and establish habits that are performed with relatively little conscious effort. When a person performs an ordinary, pleasurable activity, like physical exercise, the basal ganglia release endorphins. This response releases dopamine in...

It’s not difficult for films portraying a tricky topic like mental health to become a hot topic of conversation, garnering a wide variety of responses and often creating an uproar. Several have come under serious scrutiny – those that romanticise mental illnesses, those that create a comedy out of it, and those that twist mental illnesses into dangerous, spooky, and haunted afflictions. The depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows can have grave negative impacts, both on the viewer’s own mental health, and the shaping of their perceptions of mental illness. While, in the past century, people’s awareness on mental health has increased, the vast majority remain ill-informed on the matter (Beachum, 2010). While many of these representations are terribly inaccurate and harmful to the audience’s attitude, it is occasionally true that their roots lie in the historical treatment of mentally ill patients. Ideas of the afflicted being possessed by the devil and practitioners of ...

The unnatural (unpredictable) behavior or action of a person in a given situation can be labelled under the banner of abnormal psychology. To begin with, a good question to ponder over could be: how can the nature of one’s action be affiliated with the study of psychology? What role does psychology play? It is common to stumble across many cases of mental disorder, eating disorder, personality disorder, anger management issues, identity crisis etc. that can all be linked back to the field of psychology. The functioning and understanding of the human brain is very complex which sometimes, can also prompt and encourage abnormal behavior. The person exerting such behavior is not the one in control but the brain.  For instance, if you were to just look at the headlines of a newspaper, you’re bound to come across several shocking incidents and crimes happening in your area. Now, sit back and think to yourself: what would I have done if I were in this situation? Would I have tried ...