Psychology and More

While I was researching published literature for the previous post on restricted environmental stimulation, I came across an article published in 1966. It shows how our terminology has changed in referring to developmental disorders…

(emphasis mine)

Title: Sensory deprivation and aberrant behavior among idiots.
Year of Publication: 1966
Author: Cleland, Charles C; Clark, Charles M.
Source: American Journal of Mental Deficiency. 71(2) 1966, 213-225.
Abstract
Through a review of sensory processes at both the human and infrahuman level, sensory deprivation is related to the study of idiocy. A microtheory is presented as a guide to future research and a method for training, grouping, and management is advanced based upon a “sensory-mapping” schema in conjunction with a sensory cafeteria. Based on this evidence, it appears the idiot represents the occurrence in nature of an S deprived of meaningful social, cultural, or sensory input. The systematic study of idiocy should yield information relevant to developing a taxonomy of goals for retardates. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, psychology

The New York Times Book Review has reviewed a new book by George Makari which looks at the history of Freud’s ideas and the individuals around him who helped inform his theories. The review is not altogether positive, but I found this quote interesting:

Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis - George Makari - Book Review - New York Times:

Over the years, Makari writes, psychoanalysis created “the richest systematic description of inner experience that the Western world had produced.” It addressed “sex, love and death; childhood, parenting and family; cruelty, fear, jealousy, envy and hate; identity, conscience and character; desire and mourning.” Yet rather than the integrated, universal system Freud envisioned, his insights seem more a cabinet of curiosities, not unlike the antiquities displayed on his desk.

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, mental illness, psychology

• Covers historical understanding of abnormal behavior and mental illness, from 1100 to present. Also contemporary perspectives on understanding the causes of mental illness.

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The history of psychology weblog, Advances in the History of Psychology, has a posting on an upcoming documentary about Walter Freeman, who promoted and performed lobotomies on individuals with (and without) mental illnesses. The show will be on this Monday night, January 21st.

Advances in the History of Psychology: PBS Documentary on Chief American Lobotomist:

Freeman developed the transorbital lobotomy (often called the “ice-pick” lobotomy) in the 1930s at George Washington University as a “cure” for many types mental illness. He then relentlessly promoted his procedure, which was inflicted on nearly 3,000 people up into the 1960s.

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, mental illness, psychology

PSY 239 Podcast Episode 1 - Course IntroductionThis episode covers the course policies and procedures. Read the rest of this entry »

Ugh. Another awful shooting yesterday. And, another shooter who was psychologically disturbed. Situations like this tend to reinforce the notion that mental illness is associated with violence, and continues to stigmatize the disorders. I always cringe when this kind of media report comes out.

Pure Pedantry has a good posting about the relationships between violence and mental illness, with some good data.

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, mental illness, psychology

The New York Times has an article about Freud’s theories and how they are increasingly being ignored in psychology departments, yet they are alive and well in the humanities…

Freud Is Widely Taught at Universities, Except in the Psychology Department - New York Times:

The primary reason it became marginalized, Ms. Eagly, said, is that while most disciplines in psychology began putting greater emphasis on testing the validity of their approaches scientifically, “psychoanalysts haven’t developed the same evidence-based grounding.” As a result, most psychology departments don’t pay as much attention to psychoanalysis.

Technorati Tags: psychology

In Abnormal Psychology, we finished discussing Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind, in which she writes about the stigma associated with having a mental illness, within research and clinical psychiatry. The British Psychological Society has a blog posting about a recent article which looked at this very issue:

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Psychiatrists who treat themselves:

the most common reasons the psychiatrists gave for treating themselves were to keep a clean health insurance record, followed by concerns about the stigma associated with mental illness. This latter finding echoes previous observations about the pervasive stigma associated with mental illness in the medical profession.

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, mental illness

In Abnormal Psychology, we’re studying mood disorders this week. Mind Hacks pointed me to a parody article on the efficacy of cash payments in treating mood disorders. See, psychologists do senses of humor!

Bonkers Institute: Cash Efficacy :

Psychiatric medications relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety by restoring chemical balance within the brain, but exactly how these drugs restore the brain’s chemical balance while simultaneously wreaking havoc on every other organ in the body remains a mystery. Equally mysterious is the mechanism by which cash payments provide therapeutic benefit to depressed and anxious patients. The receipt of a large sum of money may somehow stimulate, increase, block, adjust or otherwise act upon the level, supply, transmission, inhibition, secretion or excretion of dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, gamma aminobutyric acid or some other chemical yet to be discovered.

Technorati Tags: abnormal psychology, psychology

ScienceWoman had an interesting post on the issue of college students assessing credibility of the information they read in secondary sources. In my Intro to Psychology classes, we are covering this using the James Bell workbook, Evaluating Psychological Information. Nevertheless, it is an interesting read on the process of establishing the credibility of information in the media.

On being a scientist and a woman : What does it mean to assess the credibility of science reporting? (And can we expect students to do so?):

this post is intended to be a guide for my current and future students. I would greatly appreciate any feedback my readers have for me.

Technorati Tags: critical thinking, teaching