Evolution Of Mental Illness: Historical And Contemporary Perspectives

This assignment is intended to help you develop a deeper and critical appreciation of psychology research, theory and practice. You will do this through an in-depth exploration of an issue, area or topic in psychology.

To complete this assignment you will need to locate journal articles, books and other sources relevant to your topic. You will need to apply critical thinking skills that go beyond a synthesis of literature. You will need to apply historical and philosophical concepts in your interpretation of literature and argument.

Related learning outcomes

This assignment assesses the following unit learning outcomes:

1.Describe significant figures, events, and ideas in the history of psychology.

2.Interpret the significance of these figures/events/ideas with respect to their context.

3.Identify the impact of these figures/events/ideas on evolution of psychology as a discipline.

4.Critically evaluate the philosophical, social, and scientific basis for psychological concepts and methods.

5.Synthesise arguments concerning psychological opinion, theory, and practice.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Choose one question from below that you will write your essay on:

Question 1

What is the role of subjective experience and qualia in contemporary psychology? How does this impact on the claim that psychology is a science?

Question 2

The DSM provides definitions of mental disorders which are used in diagnosis. Outline the evolution of the concept of 'mental disorder' over the past century and explain the relationship, if any, with the concept of 'wellness'.

History of Mental Illness

Previously humans were called “retards” if their behaviour crossed the parameters of normality. It was difficult to diagnose the problem and go deep to the roots of the problem. As time has been passed, the paradigm of mental health has been treated as a serious issue. For that reason, psychology has come forward in order to investigate what mental health and mental illness is and how to diagnose and treat them. This study has focused on the evolution of mental illness as a concept over the previous centuries. In addition, history of mental illness has been mentioned in context of history of psychology. Contemporary approach on mental disorders has been illuminated with special reference to DSM IV. On the other hand, wellness has been described along with its relation with mental health and illness. For that reason, theory of Authentic Happiness has been elaborated. Moreover, role of psychology in dealing with mental disorders has been explained, along with role of mental disorder in the evolution of psychology, in this study.

Mental disorders or mental illness has long been perceived in various ways until this has been counted as a psychological disease in the late 19^th century. According to Fletcher & Sarkar (2013), mental disorders used to be perceived as some kind of religious punishment in ancient times. In this regard, this can be said that Hippocrates can be termed as the pioneer who perceived mental illness not as a personal problem but as something that needs medical treatment. Mentally ill people used to be treated with disdain by so called normal people and this attitude remained till 18^th century. For that reason, no research had been done on treating mental disorders in medical science for a very long time.

Today, with the help of medical science things have taken a different course. In the 1700s and 1800s people hardly knew about mental illnesses. Psychiatry was not something people could relate to. Anyone who behaved weirdly was said to be mad and hysteric. It was not until the late 1900s that psychiatry found recognition. It was then that mental illness got a broader meaning and was recognized as a psychological illness (Corrigan, Druss & Perlick, 2014). There was a lack of unified system of psychiatric institutes in America. This lack of unity led to marginalization of the psychiatry institutes of America from the rest of medicine. Then certain medicines started to be used to treat severe psychological illnesses. With the advent of science, psychiatrists and scientists started researching about mental disorders more and more. The neurotransmitter is one of the significant discoveries in psychology that has been introduced for understanding mental disorders as something that can be a cause of psychosomatic diseases in human beings.

In the beginning of 20^th century, psychoanalysis has started to be developed that stamped an impact on viewing mental disorders from a different Eye. A classification had been made by Kraepelin those first mental disorders in different categories (Szasz, 2013). As an outcome, the state of mentally ill people in the mental asylums improved and they had been started to be termed as patients and not as mad people. In this regard, this can be added that social work and clinical psychology had joined hands with psychiatry to promote mental hygiene. For that reason, soldiers of World War 2 had received enhanced psychiatric attention as the first DSM or Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders had come into existence at that time.

Contemporary Approach on Mental Disorders

In recent times, mental disorder has been called psychiatric disorder. In other words, this is a kind of behavioural pattern in human mind that affects the health of individuals in a way that their personal functioning gets hampered. According to Giudice, Gangestad & Kaplan (2015), there can be diverse kinds of mental illness that does not necessarily have any significant cause behind them. As time has been passed, mental illness has gained this much attention that many theories and practices have been devoted to define the concept and categories of mental illness but that was not how mental disorders used to be conceptualized in the past centuries. For that reason, the concept of mental illness has a long story of evolution.

In ancient times, people used to believe that human beings were created with perfect body and mind and thus any man with any kind of degeneration used to be seen being fallen from the grace of God. This denegation used to be associated with racial hierarchies in order to give Mongolians the highest rank in the order of the races. In opinion of Gonzales, Suárez-Orozco & Dedios-Sanguineti (2013), this term had started to be associated with mental illness in the 19^th century. In order to be more specific, this association of degeneration with mental disorders has viewed as mental illness as an outcome or effect of having ancestors with minor environmental disorders such as alcoholism or smog. This has been stated that first generation of people who have these kinds of parents can show minor disorders while the second generation people can show major mental disorders like neurosis. On the other hand, mental disorder got a new meaning in the 20^th century when many doctors had opined that mental disorders can be an outcome of being morally transgressed for years. It has also been opined that people with mental disorders can give birth to handicapped babies.

In the late 19^th century, mental disorders had been conceptualized as dissolutions.  According to Schomerus, Matschinger & Angermeyer (2014), Freud was the one who called mental disorders regressions of human mind. After that, mental disorders had started to be connected with the concept of phylogenies that relates mental illness with biology. Gradually, psychiatrists have blurred the political beliefs that associated with mental illness with colonized people. As result, mental disorders started to be viewed from various angles in the realm of psychology that gave it its latest meaning. In this regard, this can be mentioned that gradually psychiatry started illuminating on symptoms of mental illnesses and not on defining any universal concept of mental disorders.

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders is an initiative taken by APA or American Psychiatric Association that has provided the psychological researchers and clinicians with some standard criteria for classifying mental disorders. This manual was introduced as a replacement of a manual of at least twenty psychotic disorders, developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, which came to be known as the Statistical manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane (SMUII). The SMUII manual was ignored by American Psychiatric Association popularly known as APA. In opinion of Scott et al. (2013), DSM has five editions among which the fifth edition has been published in 2013. Apart from this manual, there is an alternative manual called the international classification of diseases or ICD that also classified mental disorders in several categories.

DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The DSM provides with a list of features that distinguishes mental disorders from other disorders. It defines mental disorders as a disorder that has a psychological or behavioural pattern or syndrome that can occur in any individual. It further states that the consequences of such mental disorders have clinically severe distress, which includes painful symptoms or any kind of disability. It is often a manifestation of a psychological, behavioural or biological malfunction in an individual. However, any kind of deviant behaviour or conflicts which are primarily between the society and individual cannot be termed as mental disorders until the deviance can be identified as a cause of dysfunction in the individual (Scott et al. 2013). Among the five editions of this manual, DSM-IV refers to mental disorder as a clinically significant behavioural or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual. In this regard, this can be mentioned that DSM has become an essential thing for the clinicians for diagnosing and treating patients.

According to this manual, there can be multiple types of mental disorders that again can be categorized in sub-divisions. In opinion of Tandon et al. (2013), anxiety has been included as one of the mental disorders that can be referred as some kind of fear which hampers normal functioning of an individual. Apart from this, some important and common mental disorders, as mentioned in the manual, include phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic, OCD, eating and sleeping disorders and more. Depression has become an umbrella term that includes many mental disorders such as mood disorders, hypomania and more. There is a list of psychotic disorders that include schizophrenia. In this regard, this can be added that disorders can be classified in a brief category that includes categories like personality disorders, adjustment disorders, emotional disorders and more.

In this regard, this can be mentioned that this manual has been criticized for presenting the mental disorders as clinical diseases. According to Benjamin & Baker (2014), despite being treated as diseases, not all the identified mental disorders have been described as in need of medical diagnoses. Thus, this can be said that the categories of all the mental disorders can be valid if the disorders start to be based on only neurological characteristics and not on clinical interviews.

Wellness or well being of an individual is something that is beyond physical health or mental health. According to Proyer, Gander, Wellenzohn & Ruch (2016), wellness refers to an integrated state that includes all kinds of well being such as mental, physical or spiritual wellness. In this regard, this can be mentioned that wellness can be dependent on various dimensions such as emotional, occupational, intellectual, social, physical, environmental dimensions of wellness and more. In opinion of Goyal et al. (2014), there is a difference between being immune from diseases and being in the state of wellness. In other words, well being is a process of growth and change, a process that is dynamic in nature.

The importance of this state lies in the fact that being in the state of wellness allows an individual to live a better life. In this regard, this can be mentioned that wellness is associated with each and every feeling that we go through in our lifetime. Thus, an individual may not necessarily be in a constant state of wellness throughout the life and the vice versa. In addition to the role of feelings in creating the state of wellness, it can also be mentioned that our emotions also get affected by the state we live in.

Role of Psychology in Dealing with Mental Disorders

In earlier days, nobody gave enough stress to the concept of mental wellbeing. People hardly knew that mental health mattered and mental disorders existed. On the other hand, this concept of well being or wellness has arrived with the popularization of positive psychology in the realm of psychology. This genre of psychology takes an important part in treating mental illness because this deals with positive functioning of human mind. Theory of Authentic Happiness is a by-product of this genre of psychology that can be explained in order to understand wellness better. According to Scorsolini-Comin, Fontaine, Koller & Santos (2013), this theory supports the fact that happiness of an individual can be evaluated by evaluating several elements of our lives such as meaning, positive emotion and more that we choose not for our sakes for their sakes.

For example, the parents listen to their daughter singing not just because it makes them feel happy but because this is a choice that gives their life a meaning. Among the three elements of happiness, positive emotion includes any kind of comfort, pleasure or ecstasy. On the other hand, element of engagement is associated with any kind of absorbing act where the hold of self consciousness loosens up itself. Moreover, this happiness is a state of well being that encourages a person to be connected with positive thoughts, positive relationships and a positive purpose that can give their life a meaning.

As mentioned earlier, wellness is a dynamic state of being that can be posed as an ideal state of being for everyone. In this regard, this can be added that mental wellness is a part of well being that is directly associated with mental disorders. This is so because mental illness can occur due to mental dysfunction of any kind. Thus, it is obvious that an individual with wellness has lesser chances of being affected with mental disorders in the lifetime. According to Shoshani & Steinmetz (2014), mental health is as important as physical health because this has the power of affecting an individual in diverse ways. In other words, mental health has an important role in determining whether a person is mentally well or not.

On the other hand, wellness has a vital role in preventing the span of mental illness through a process of self recovery. In opinion of Baumeister, Reichler, Munzinger & Lin (2014), a stable wellness can immune a person from being attracted to many mental disorders even in the times of stress. Thus, the coping mechanism of wellness can be used to treat mental illness. In this regard, this can also be mentioned that wellness and mental illness share a cyclical bond where each one of them affects the other. This is so because presence of any mental disorder can decide whether the affected person can achieve mental wellness or not and the presence of well being can decide whether the person can be immune to mental disorder or not.

Wellness and mental health are related because mental health deals with coping mechanisms while wellness is highly dependent on mental health of a person. On the other hand, this can be mentioned that wellness has an important role in maximize the chances of having an improved mind and body. Thus, wellness and mental disorders share a vital relation as wellness can take a vital part in preventing mental illness by promoting the importance of mental health.

Conclusion

In order to conclude, this can be stated that mental illness has a long history of evolution that has a strong effect on both mentally ill and healthy people. On the other hand, the evolution of mental illness has a strong impact on evolution of psychology itself. This study focused on history of mental illness along with describing its evolutionary concepts. For this reason, DSM has been mentioned for a better understanding of mental disorders as it is perceived today. On the other hand, wellness or well being has been defined with special reference to theory of Authentic Happiness. In this regard, the relationship between wellness and mental illness has been elaborated. It has been found that mental health is as much important as physical health for living a wholesome healthy life. Moreover, the evolution of the concept of mental illness has been elaborated on the basis of its importance in diagnosing patients with mental disorders. Finally, it can be concluded that psychology, as scientific field, has become rich through its repeated attempts at conceptualizing and categorizing mental disorders in definite ways over the course of time.

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