Bradley Lewis

In Chapter 3 of Opening Skinner’s Box, “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” Lauren Slater discusses the contentious issue psychiatrists faced in 1972 after psychologist David Rosenhan conducted his most famous experiment, proving how psychiatrists already label patients when they walk through the door to be evaluated. The author, Slater is a psychologist herself in which her writing in this chapter is supportive to Rosenhan’s findings. This may limit supporting arguments on crediting psychiatric conceptualization. The meaning of behavior can easily be misunderstood, a patient can be diagnosed according to the doctor’s capacity of knowledge to specific behaviors.

Humans who are being over diagnosed with disorders, causes the spending of too much money on drugs and medication that could be harmful and is not needed for them to take. The objective of this book is to let people become aware of what is going on around the world. The audience that this book aims towards is the public. The main objective of Dr. Frances is to alert the public, health care professionals and clinicians about the misinformed diagnosis of people and the misdirected treatment and medications that are prescribed to people who are “normal.” Everyday pains and suffering are being diagnosed as mental illnesses and disorders. Psychiatry has specified people with false labels. The first of many arguments is that people are very worried that when a new disorder is brought up, that they have this disorder or illness. Another argument in this book is the misdiagnosis between mental disorder and normality. Many people who experience completely normal grief could be mislabeled as having a psychiatric problem. The next argument is to separate the people who have diseases from normality. Allen Frances blames the internet and social networking for the over diagnosis of mental disorder. This book is also about the high percentage of people who are now diagnosed with a mental illness,

The labeling theory explains how a community or culture defines deviant behavior, and the proper diagnosis to treating the individual. This can be seen in An Cloch'an, where psychiatric problems are “rarely made by the villager himself”(Scheper-Hughes 161). Although initial hospitalization is rarely in acted by the individual, the patient eventually internalizes his behavior as deviant and will identify himself as insane once institutionalized. However, the labeling theory can only be used within the definitions of the culture, since different cultures will define abnormal behavior differently. In the context of some Non-Western cultures, symptoms of schizophrenia are praised, and those who may hear voices or hallucinate are deemed as spiritual, and given the role of prophet or shaman within the culture. Although schizophrenic symptoms are revered in some cultures, within Ireland there is not only a stigma to the patient,but to the family as well (Scheper-Hughes 283).Scheper-Hughes explains that schizophrenia is a family condition; to the extent where there is a pathology for the “schizophrenic mothers”. Defining the mothers of schizophrenic patients as obsessive, sexually and emotionally immature, repressed, guilt ridden and ignoring the needs and demands of their children (Scheper-Hughes 257). This clinical diagnoses for mothers of schizophrenics only deepens the social stigmas, and created more resentment among the family members toward the patient.

Application of the holistic approach can be seen in the Biopsychosocial model used today in psychiatric and mental health nursing. The interdependent domains, biological (physical functioning), psychological (thoughts feelings and, behavior), and social (influence from family and communities) all come together with each having its own knowledge and treatment focus for the patient (source pg. 70). According to Stainback and Stainback (1988), holistic portrayal of events, procedures, and viewpoints in settings is often considered necessary to make accurate situational decisions. The approach helps to better understand the needs of patients so accurate care can be given. Therefore, when caring for a patient with a mental health illness, using a model such as the Biopsychosocial model is a good framework to reflect a good understanding of recognizing human beings

T.M. Luhrmann’s Of Two Minds The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry is about an author’s experience in the field of psychiatric hospitals and how she shares her view to the world. As an experienced ethnographer yet a relative newcomer to psychological anthropology, Luhrmann shows us how psychiatrists develop empathetic nodes of communications and how they explore new ways of dealing with emotional extremities. She was already familiar with the realm of psychological anthropology because her father was a psychiatrist and she was exposed to a Freudian understanding of how childhood experiences can explain adult behavior (Luhrmann 3). But, what exactly is this Freudian understanding? After a close reading of Luhrmann’s book and browsing on several

Some people feel that when diagnosed with a mental illness they are being labelled into a category they are seen as mentally ill instead of them having a mental illness unfortunately there are so many negative stereotypes which are pinned with mental illness, according to the labelling theory it’s the thought of a person being labelled mentally ill which can cause you to be ill mentally as a result of its effects described as a self-fulfilling prophecy according to a modified version of this theory. There are assumptions about the negative impact on self-concept, this impact is described in later research about stigma and self-stigma, stigma can have some negative results for self-concept by lowing self-efficacy which can make impaired coping

Among these therapeutic approaches are the psychodynamic approach and the existential approach. An example of existential approach psychotherapy is the person-centred therapy that was introduced by Carl Rogers in the 1940s. Person-centred therapy (PCT) focuses on the quality of the person-to-person therapeutic relationship; it places faith and gives responsibility to the client in dealing with problems and concerns (Corey, 2009, p. 30). On the other hand, for the psychodynamic approach, Sigmund Freud, the core founder of this approach developed psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a therapy aimed to treat mental disorder. It is a set of techniques for treating the unconscious causes of mental disorders; as well as to explain the underlying factors of how human personality and abnormality develop from childhood (Corey, 2009, p. 30). This paper examines the similarities and differences between psychoanalytic therapy and

The Biopsychosocial model (BPS) was established in the early 1970s as a replacement for the biomedical approach created by George Engel (1977). He had argued against the reductionist biomedical model of disease for not considering the behavioural, psychological and social dimensions in the model (Jull, 2017). Wade and Halligan, (2016) had established that biomedical remains as the dominant healthcare approach. The aim of BPS is to integrate the biological factors with psychological and environmental factors, Engel (1977) suggested that the biopsychosocial model of illness has a significant role in the functioning of humans in terms of disease or illness and can make medicine more scientific and should be adopted into psychiatry research (Adler, 2009). Davies and Roache, (2017) established that the model was exceedingly determined, recommending new details for practices as well as a non-reductive advocate for mental illness.

Have you ever heard of Dr. Ben Carson before? There is no question that he was an African American neurosurgeon and good at what he did, but who paved the way for people like him. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was one of them. He was an American general surgeon who was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in 1856.

Kroska, A. Harkness, S.K. (2008). Exploring the role of diagnosis in the modified labeling theory of mental illness. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71, 193-208

This paper will attempt to explain reason’s for the rejection of anti-realism in relation to mental disorders by psychologist George Graham of Georgia State University. In this essay I will explain the relevance of realism and anti-realism as well as present two arguments that Graham proclaims support anti-realism. This analysis of Graham’s thoughts and ideas on anti-realism and mental disorders will be squarely based upon the information supplied by Graham in his book titled, The Disordered Mind. In this book, the realist minded Graham develops and ultimately supports a non-reductive theory on the subject of mental disorders.

Lastly, the assumption that mentally ill people are distinctly different from mentally well people can lead to labelling and prejudice against those defined as abnormal under the biological model. It also has practical implications such as institutionalisation

If we reach that far back in psychiatric history it would appear as though mainstream psychiatry has actually come a long way. To gain insight in to all disciplines of study it’s critical to venture back in time to get a glimpse of its history. It’s necessary to study the roots in an effort to accurately extrapolate where things have been, where things are, and where the vision is directed for the future. Advancements in health care have unfolded through trial and error. These progressive improvements in patient care are profoundly swayed by public attitudes and medical theories. Since we have had such difficulty in finding our way out of the stigma mental illness maintains on today’s society, it is not surprising that psychiatry continues to lag behind other fields of medicine in terms of advancements.

Today, mental issues like ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and depression are better understood thanks to past experience and seen as a minor neurosis. Unfortunately some treatments depersonalize these individuals leaving them empty and plain. There are clear examples of negative connotations attributed to medications. In his autobiography, the

Conversely, a social constructionists view on the self and depression is that mental disorders in general, are produced by practices of experts rather than already existing in the world awaiting to be discovered (Conrad, 2010). Likewise, they would disagree with the epistemology of diagnosis of depression using the DSM, which is claimed to be ‘rigorous scientific research’ but could be criticised as being unscientific. In addition, the biological approach derives knowledge through their contact with patients (Polkinghorne 1992), which suggests that their ‘epistemology of practice’ is more compatible then positivist epistemology. However, depression becomes medicalised and problems are then viewed as internal individual problems or psychopathology