Distortions Of Mind Perception On Psychopathology, By Kurt Gray

When people think of an “illness” they typically don’t automatically think of mental illness. They think about HIV, cancer, or even a cold or flu. However when it comes to mental illness it is a whole different idea. But is mental illness even real? Addressed in the book, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), a psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argues that the idea of classifying psychological and emotional difficulties as “illnesses” takes away sense of control. Instead of holding people personally and morally responsible for their actions, he states, doctors attempt to “treat” the person, often with medications. Diagnosing mental illness, on the other hand, argue that mental disorders are as real as physical diseases and diagnosing them allows people

Psychopathy as a mental disorder or construct, although not included in the presently valid classification systems, is gradually fascinating the experts and investigators involved in the field of mental health. Curiosity in psychopathy has mainly grown after the declaration of the new classification system DSM V in which psychopathy is mentioned as a clear diagnosis in the context of six new personality illnesses.

Psychopathy is an umbrella term that is both wide and varied. Much like the spectrum of light, there are numerous groups and subcategories. In this spectrum is Anti- Social Personality Disorder (referred to as ASPD in this essay); this condition unlike psychopathy is a recognized disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (referred to as the DSM). The term psychopathy and psychopath is used in both the media and everyday use as a disorder but this is untrue. Unlike a disorder, psychopathy is more of a series of traits that all individuals have. ASPD and psychopathy are used interchangeably in society, but the diagnosis for ASPD and psychopathy are quite different. Though similar in numerous ways, there are some key

Review of Thomas Szasz. M.D.,The Myth Of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct.

When most people hear the word psychopath their mind forms a picture of a wild-eyed, rambling, lunatic who is often restrained in a straitjacket. The media has helped this belief along the way with slasher horror films and grisly CSI episodes depict these strange humans. However, the average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people believe. In fact, most of them are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary humans. They outwardly appear normal and many do not find it difficult to blend into common society. They can interact with others, hold successful jobs, and effectively keep themselves out of trouble. Most are not the sadistic killers many people think they are. Psychopaths are people born with problems (Bartol 105) or

According to studies led by King’s College researchers, it has been confirmed that “psychopathy is a distinct subgroup of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)” (Gregory et. al n.p) and similarly to psychopathy, the more severe ASPD behavioral patterns are, the symptoms can be referred to as sociopathic or psychopathic. Furthermore, according to Nigel Blackwood, Ma, MD.MRCPsych, “MRI scans...found that psychopaths had structural brain abnormalities in key areas of their ‘social brains’” (Gregory et. al n.p). The areas of the brain, in which are deficient in psychopaths, are important when comprehending an individual emotions’, intentions, and moral

Sociopathy is a definitive wayward behavior that is considered to be strayed from the norm. Sociopaths are understood to behave in ways that are out of the ordinary or outside of the acceptable norm (Eiseberg, 1995). In essence, sociopaths are overbearingly preconditioned to perform excesses of certain behaviors. Sociopaths often fall under the category of moral outlaws (Joana & Abigail, 2014). Psychologists have noted that psychopathic tendencies are inert. They can be triggered by brutal upbringing, or life-threatening or -changing experiences (Marsh, 2013). For a trait that is so mystifying, it leaves to ask, how are sociopaths created? How do people with this trait get to become this way? A major theme of this literature review finds that there are still large gaps of understanding when it comes to the clinical study of what makes a sociopathic mind work.

The amygdala of psychopaths have has been found to be hypoactive during fear conditioning (Birbaumer et al., 2005), moral decision-making (Glenn, Raine, & Schug, 2009), and social cooperation (Rilling et al., 2007). As expected, studies have also found the amygdala to be hypoactive in response to fearful faces or other affect-related activity (e.g. Carré et al., 2013; Kiehl et al., 2001). Nevertheless, Müller et al. (2003) found that psychopaths had increased activation in the amygdala (in addition to increased prefrontal activation) when viewing negative content (e.g. pictures of threatening animals, wounded people) which they interpreted as reflecting abnormal prefrontal – amygdala communication.” (Umbach et al., 2015,

Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami. She earned a medical degree in neuroscience and a doctorate in philosophy. This article explained the traits of a psychopath, such as their callous, manipulative, and cunning behavior, along with the differentiating between psychopaths and psychotics. This article helped me by providing a good background on psychopathology and useful examples.

Mindreading is defined as the ability to “make sense of other people and to coordinate our behavior with theirs” (Bermudez, 354). Many cognitive scientists believe the theory of mind mechanism (TOMM) is important to mindreading. These scientists contend that autistic individuals suffer from an impairment to this theory of mind module. However, others have argued that theory of mind, which is “the ability to form beliefs about the mental states of others”, is not a modular ability, but instead the result of the interaction of many different cognitive skills. In their paper “Generous or Parsimonious Cognitive Architecture? Cognitive Neuroscience and Theory of Mind,” Philip Gerrans and Valerie E. Stone take this view of theory of mind. I will review this paper and its arguments, then address the response to Gerrans and Stone made by Carl Hildebrand.

According to research a difficulty developing Theory of Mind is central to the social deficits associated with autism (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). Theory of Mind is the ability to infer, understand and predict the beliefs, intentions, emotions of oneself and others. In typically developing children the understanding of intention as an “internal goal-oriented internal state is evident around 4-5 years of age (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). It is often the more subtle aspects of Theory of Mind, such as the ability to recognize complex emotions and facial expressions, and the interpretation of social-emotional cues in naturalistic settings, are where cognitively more able groups of individuals with ASD struggle (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). Those children with ASD that are of low IQ are most likely to struggle with Theory of Mind because they are not fully able to utilize cognitive reasoning to compensate for their social deficits (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin,

There are many symptoms of psychopathy but only a few pertain to emotions. Some of the emotional symptoms of psychopathy are traits that include egocentrism, manipulative, and lack of empathy and guilt. Psychopaths are egocentric. In their mind they are the center of the universe and the whole world should revolve around them. Because they are egocentric psychopaths believe they know best and make their own rules to follow. (Hare, 38). Psychopaths have a natural talent to manipulate individuals into doing just about anything. As the leading expert on psychopathy, Dr. Robert Hare states that “Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths.” (Hare, 46). Therefore, psychopaths use their talents in order to get their way because they are self-centered. It is commonly known that psychopaths lack guilt. This lack of guilt inhibits them from showing

Autism is a mental imbalance a provide Entitled, extremely introverted Disturbances of Affective Contact this fundamental state turned into the construct for all review with respect to what came to be known as Autism. It is a turmoil described by shortfalls in three noteworthy regions of conduct ¬ social, informative and the show of monotonous or limited practices. Autism records the fundamental components as "the nearness of extraordinarily irregular or hindered advancement in social association and correspondences and a uniquely limited collection of exercises and premiums. The social issues incorporate less eye contact, less consideration regarding social jolts and trouble in learning and utilizing the social abilities expected to work

The researchers, based at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths' brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders. The study showed that psychopaths, who are characterised by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other people's emotions.

Also, individuals with autism have been shown to lack this ability, yet we do not attribute with a lack of moral judgement. The solution to understanding the differences between psychopaths, autistic individuals, and normally developed individuals, Nichols asserts, lies in finding a deficit present in psychopaths and not autistic individuals. Due to the non-rationalist explanation of lack of responsiveness to harm of others in psychopaths, the evidence points towards a Humean account. Thus, Nichols concludes that this deficiency is to be found in affective capacities.