Brain Disorders: What Is Psychiatry?

Mental illness is a condition characterized by emotions, thoughts, or behavior that are substantially abnormal for a given time and place in history (p. 514). Historically, it has been broadly been defined by self-harm, unrealistic thoughts and perceptions (delusions, hallucinations, magical thinking, etc.), inappropriate emotions, and rapid shifts in moods or beliefs. All these criteria compare the

He begins to act out by skipping school and, like his father, reflects on happier times shared with his mother on warm, sandy beaches. For the three of them, their saving grace is the metaphor of the “canvas,” as the mother paints on canvas to relieve her psychotic symptoms, the father wishes to fill the canvas sail with the wind of change, and the son sews patches on the ripped and tattered sail, just as their lives are in so much need of healing. Psychopathology can be defined as the scientific study and classification of mental disorders, including their biological, psychological and social causes. The classification and treatment of mental disorders varies across several professional physical and mental health disciplines including doctors, psychiatrists, chiropractors, psychologists, nurses, counselors, social workers and ministers.

For many centuries there has been multiple arguments about what causes mental illness. Hebrews believed that mental illness was a punishment from god for those who sinned. The way they cured one another was spiritually and through health. They believed that if you had a healthy diet that it would prevent you from any diseases. The physicians were also priests who had “special ways” to heal with higher powers. The biggest theory was that whoever had a mental illness was caused from supernatural forces. There had been many different treatments to help cure ones suffering. Dating back to 5000 BCE was the first treatment preformed on record, showing that one would chip a hole into the human skull to release evil spirits. Later on, the Ancient Egyptians

In principle, psychopathology is the scientific study of mental disorders and their origin; in addition, this field of study examines the causes, development, and possible treatment for the disorders. Essentially, psychopathology encompasses three aspects that are considered as directly related to the mental disorders. These facets include the biological considerations, social issues, and psychological aspects of any mental condition. In fact, the initial perception of mental illness was associated with religious issues such

Diagnosis involves absolutely no prior scientific examination. Psychiatric offices place individuals in a small room to undergo analysis, while doctors assess how the individual responds to stillness and silence. The methodical diagnosis of the disorder seems to be unfair because the testing process seems as if it is designed for the individual to fail. The fact that no scientific testing occurs makes the testing completely judgmental and inaccurate.

The first website I looked at is run by a licensed psychologist named Philip Hickey. His site claims to be “an alternative perspective on psychiatry 's so-called mental disorders.” He uses this site to criticize the APA and all psychiatric practices. This website doesn’t exactly present a pseudoscientific treatment or cure because Hickey believes that mental illnesses do not exist and therefore do not require treatment. I think that a licensed psychologist using his name and title to discredit everyone who works in the field of psychology and all of the people living with a mental illness is just as dangerous as a fake treatment for a disease.

Psychiatry is a type of science that involves mental illnesses and diagnosing the patient's’ mental, and sometimes physical, health. Psychiatrists are doctors that are trained to diagnose mental illnesses, and spot mental, emotional and behavioral symptoms. They work with their patients, listening to their stories, and performing tests in order to find out what, if any, mental illnesses or cognitive disorders. The median annual salary for a psychiatrist is around $200,000.

Mental illness is a disorder that is considered to be a type of interruption in a person’s emotions, thoughts, or behavior. Mental illness signifies to a wide variety of disorders which can range from mild distress to impairing a person’s ability to function in daily life. Signs and symptoms of mental illness can vary, depending on the particular disorder, circumstances and other factors. Whether a behavior is considered normal or abnormal varies on the person’s situation surrounding their behavior. Throughout history there’ve been three overall beliefs for the causes of mental illness. These three theories are known as supernatural, somatogenic, and psychogenic. Each one of these stands for how one is viewed when seen as having a mental illness.

Today, mental illness has been the scapegoat for most crimes today. From mass shootings to bombings, most people have blamed mental illness for the cause of these crimes. Moreover, even some defense attorneys have even had cases in which they claimed their client had a mental illness in order to receive a lesser sentence. However, in order to truly understand mental illness, we must first look at the history of people studying the brain. The history of the study of the brain, psychology, dates back to ancient Greece. By using the scientific reasoning, Hippocrates speculated that human temperament can vary by a person's physical qualities, such as yellow bile or too much blood (Smith). Many philosophers during this time period might have only

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.

Psychopathology is a term, which refers to either the study of mental illness, mental distress or the manifestation of behaviors and experiences, which may be indicators to mental illness, or psychological impairment (Psychopathology, n.d.) Within clinical counseling, the use tends to be in the treatment of mental disorders, the origins or the development of mental disorder. Technologies are being used, as well as have been, developed that require an accurate model, which is always being advanced within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, or the DSM. (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). For example, recent technology includes molecular genetics and mature statistical models. Which will in term assist in attempts to better understand where psychological disorders originate form. Currently, most psychopathology research follows the guidelines based in the fourth edition of the DSM, which assumes that mental disorders

Medical technology is one change that has led to advanced treatment of mental illness since the early 1900s. Firstly, “images produced by positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resources imaging (MRI) technology have revealed that a lot of the mental

Many terms and concepts are commonly associated with mental illness. the topic of mental illness has many overlapping and subset definitions. Mental illness, a term that encompasses a wide range of mental disorders, contains subcategories of mental disorders distinguishable by effects on a person's behavior, thinking, and mood. Disorders are the most commonly referred to an aspect of mental illness; types of disorders are schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression. Syndromes, even more, specific than disorders, pertain to particular systems within subcategories of disorders and are identifiable by distinct symptoms, mental or physical markers expressed by a disease; examples of syndromes are an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder

A psychological disorder, also known as a mental disorder, is a pattern of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact multiple life areas and create distress for the person experiencing these symptoms. These symptoms are characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual 's cognitive, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental process underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities. Approximately 26 percent of American adults over the age of 18 suffer from some diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. (Cherry)

A psychological illness is a mental, cognitive, or emotional illness that affects a person’s intellectual capacity to interact with the environment. Individuals who have a psychological illness have different symptoms that may be consider in the appropriate classification of the person’s mental illness. Doctors use the psychological system to determine the appropriate method to treat the patient’s disorder. Diagnostic system consist of the diagnosis of a patient to determine their illness and help get a treatment for that person. The pros from having a diagnostic system are that the doctors can determine the exact symptoms and the correct treatment for the patient according to the age and physiological state. Moreover, it will also help the