Mental distress lies at the heart of counselling, psychotherapy and counselling psychology. Psychopathology derives from two Greek words psych meaning soul and pathos which means suffering. In summary psychopathology is the origin of mental disorder it is the development and the symptoms associated to mental disorders. The discussion aims to present a psychological perspective on mental disorders. Secondly draw a character analysis based on the movie American Splendor by referring to psychiatric diagnoses of depression, personality disorder and family dysfunction, in conclusion highlight the differences between the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-TR (DSM) and the DSM 5.
INTRODUCTION Psychoanalysis, a particular method of medical treatment of mental illness was developed by Sigmund Freud. He derived this method from his clinical observations as well as his theoretical speculations regarding poetic and artistic creation and religion. Psychoanalysis gradually became known as the science of unconscious mental processes, and the usefulness of its theories became valuable for the understanding of the metal behavior in health as well as diseases. As a physician who specialized in treating the mentally ill, Freud developed a comprehensive theory concerning the psychological structure and functioning of the human mind. Freud’s most fertile years were those between 1895 and 1900.
Existentialism as a philosophy has modern roots in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the time of its development the movement was not readily accepted in academia. It would not be until the twentieth century until it would find greater merit. According to research submitted by Nobin Narzary in his thesis The Rise of Existentialism, the unique history of the twentieth century including world wars, scientific breakthroughs, and the devaluation of human life provided adequate ground for existentialism to take hold [ CITATION Nob12 l 1033 ]. The tragedy of world warfare and loss of human life inspired philosophical debate as to the nature of human existence and its relation to common principals of divinity and human destiny.
Perhaps one of the earliest systematic sets of theories on deviance from the functionalist perspective were launched by two prominent sociologists, Emile Durkheim and Robert King Merton (Clinard & Meier, 2008). During Durkheim’s suicide study in the nineteenth century, he first developed the concept of Anomie, which refers to a state where social norms no longer bring about social order and consequently resulting in a form of deviance—suicide (Thio, Taylor, & Schwartz, 2013). Durkheim stated that people living in times of revolution or war for instance, would experience anomie and may become deviant because rapid social change or unforeseen social situations often stop them from adhering to conventional social norms (Thio, Taylor, & Schwartz, 2013). In 1938, an American sociologist named Robert Merton translated Durkheim’s Anomie theory into Anomie-Strain theory by re-conceptualizing the original concept of anomie (Goode,
Literature review: The contemporary trauma theory derived by pioneer critics such as Caruth and Felman has a central claim that a traumatic incident creates a “speechless fright that divides or destroys identity”. (Trends in Literary Trauma Theory- Balaev, Michelle) Trauma theory according to a child psychiatrist Lenore Terr occurs
He was taken to the psychiatrist and maybe because of this he became fascinated with psychology. His first major work was study of mental illness. In Madness and Civilisation (1961), he talked about how madness was seen by the society as a social construct different from mental illness. In his book, The Birth of the Clinic he demonstrated the shift of superstition to objective truth related to body and disease. His other works are The Order of Things where he studied the structure of various course of discipline, where he identified the epistemic system under all periods of history, namely Renaissance, The Classic Age and Modernity.
1 Book review Foucault, Michel. (1970) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, Pantheon Books. Michael Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher. He was professor at desk College de France, which he named as History of the system of the thought. His works had huge influence on human and social science in the second half of the 20th century.
In the following will look at the concept of cultural trauma, Jeffery Alexander, defined cultural trauma that 'when members of collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marked upon their consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways '(2004:1). The cultural trauma usually refers to previously unrelated events, structure, perception and actions. Alexander presents two dimension of cultural trauma. Firstly, the "Lay Trauma Theory", which he argues that traumas are naturally occurring events that crash individuals or collectives sense of well-being, the power that shatters trauma, it is a thinking that appears from events itself, being traumatised is response to that kind of shattering event. Secondly, he discussed the lay trauma theory in term of enlightenment thinking and psychoanalytic version.
It's a method that he hoped would help his patients, in a way, understand themselves and makes them understand how they interact and behave in the world. Freud's theory is that our actions whether it is accidental and or unpredictable, is in fact, the unconscious doing. Looking at the earlier texts of psychoanalysis, it is very much concerned by the language and meaning; it is the innermost important aspect within sociology and psychoanalysis. The human language focuses on the imperfections of human interactions and communications. These imperfections from human can be in the form of parapraxis, or better known as Freudian slips; a human action made by the unconscious, which fascinated Freud.
Sigmund Freud was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. He was commonly referred to as the father of psychoanalysis. He studied the mind and believed it to be a complex energy structure. Through his studies and treatments, he believed that "with psychoanalysis he had invented a successful science of the mind, remains the subject of much critical debate and controversy" (Thornton). "Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, explained the human mind as like an iceberg, with only a small amount of it being visible, that is our observable behavior, but it is the unconscious, submerged mind that has the most, underlying influence on our behavior.