LECTURE 1

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY:
PAST & PRESENT
LECTURE BY MS. AFREEN KOMAL
 WHAT IS ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY?
• The scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict,
explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning

“The Four Ds”

Dysfunction –
Deviance – Distress – Interfering with
Different, the person's
extreme, unusual, Unpleasant and
upsetting to the ability to Danger – Posing
risk of harm
perhaps even person conduct daily
bizarre activities in a
constructive way 2
 MENTAL DISORDER
According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fifth Edition
(DSM-5), characteristics of mental disorder are:
• The disorder occurs within the individual
Disturbance in individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects
dysfunction in psychological, biological and developmental processes
• It causes personal distress or disability
• It is not a culturally specific reaction to an event (e.g. death of a loved one)
• It is not primarily a result of social deviance (political, religious or sexual) or
conflict with society 3
 MENTAL DISORDER

Violation of
Personal Distress
Social Norms

Mental Disorder

Disability Dysfunction

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HOW WAS ABNORMALITY VIEWED AND
TREATED IN THE PAST?

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 STONE AGES
EARLY DEMONOLOGY

Ancient societies probably regarded abnormal

behavior as the work of evil spirits.
Treatment:
o Trephination
o Exorcism
Frontal Lobotomies/Frontal Lobe Damage-led to
Dramatic Personality Change
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EARLY BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS (500 B.C. – 500 A.D.)
Hippocrates – Father of Modern Medicine (5th Century B.C.): Theory of Humors

Explanation Abnormality Treatment

Black Bile Melancholia Tranquility, food and
drink, abstinence from
sexual activity
Yellow Bile Irritability, Anxiousness

Blood Changeable
Temperament Attempt to rebalance
humors/ body fluids
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Phlegm Sluggish, Dull
 MIDDLE AGES (500 – 1350 A.D.)
DEMONOLOGY RETURNS
• Fall of Rome and rise of Christianity
• Churches and Monasteries were responsible for caring of mentally ill
• 13th Century: Witchcraft – Malleus Maleficarum – The Witches’ Hammer
• Tarantism: Mania like symptoms
• Treatment: Dancing (Tarantilla)

• Lycanthropy: Possession by wolves or other animals. People started acting like wolf and
imagined fur was growing
At the close of the middle ages, demonology and its methods began to lose favor again 8
 THE RENAISSANCE (1400 – 1700 A.D.)
THE RISE OF ASYLUMS
• Alternate explanation: Lunacy and cycle of moon (Paracelsus)
• 14th Century: Holy Trinity Hospital in Salisbury, England
• 1243: Bethlehem and Other Early Asylums: (Bedlam)
• 1784: Lunatic Towers in Vienna

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 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
REFORM AND MORAL TREATMENT
• Benjamin Rush – Father of American Psychiatry
• Mental disorder is caused by an excess of blood in the brain
• Could be cured by frightening
• Pinel’s Reforms: Asylum La Bicerte (Paris)
• Jean-Baptiste Pussin
• Case histories; Removed chains of patients & Sunny rooms, Regular exercise
• Dorothea Dix: Moral Treatment
• Campaign, Legislation
• Patients had close contact with attendants and lived in conditions closed to normal as possible
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 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
REFORM AND MORAL TREATMENT

• By the end of the nineteenth century, several factors led to a reversal of the moral
treatment movement:
o Money and staff shortages
o Declining recovery rates
o Overcrowding
o Emergence of prejudice

• By the early years of the twentieth century, the moral treatment movement had
ground to a halt; long-term hospitalization became the rule once again
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 THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
DUAL PERSPECTIVES

The Somatogenic The Psychogenic

Perspective Perspective
• Abnormal functioning • Abnormal functioning
has physical causes has psychological causes

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 THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE SOMATOGENIC PERSPECTIVE

• Two factors were responsible for the rebirth of this perspective:

• Emil Kraepelin argued that physical factors (such as fatigue) are responsible
for mental dysfunction
• New biological discoveries were made, such as the link between untreated
Syphilis and general Paresis

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 THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE PSYCHOGENIC PERSPECTIVE

• The rise in popularity of this perspective was based on work with hypnotism:
• Friedrich Mesmer and hysterical disorders
• Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis

• Freud and his followers offered treatment primarily to patients who did not
require hospitalization – now known as outpatient therapy
• By the early 20th century, psychoanalytic theory and treatment were widely accepted

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 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

• Developments in psychological theory, treatments, understanding of neuroscience,

assessment, classification
• Including two major theoretical movements: psychoanalysis (Freud), behaviorism
• Advanced approach to understanding of psychopathology
• In the 1950s, researchers discovered a number of new Psychotropic Medications:
• Antipsychotic Drugs
• Antidepressant Drugs
• Antianxiety Drugs
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 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY IN INDO PAK

• Indian subcontinent, supernatural influences were and are supposed to be the

cause of mental illness and so the treatment. Jinn possession, bhoot pareet
• Some relief was provided by indigenous systems like:
a) Ayurveda, literally meaning science of life
b) Siddha system, popular among Tamils
c) Unani or the Greek system made popular during the Muslim rule
d) More recently homeopathy

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 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY IN INDO PAK

• A place like mental hospital was established in Madha Pardesh by Mohammed

Khilji (1436-1469)
• During British rule first asylum in 1745 at Bombay
• Second was established in Calcutta in 1784
• The Indian asylum act of 1858 was replaced by lunacy act of 1912. The term
lunatic asylum was changed to mental hospital in 1922.

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 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY IN INDO PAK

• In 1947: Pakistan inherited 2 mental hospitals

• One was situated in Lahore (1840) with 1400 beds and other was in Hyderabad
(1865) had 450 beds
• In 1964: Mental hospital was established in Peshawar with 100 beds

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 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY IN INDO PAK

• First named as Punjab Institute of Psychiatric Diseases

• Now known as Punjab Institute of Mental Health
• Pakistan Association for Mental Health (PAMH) was registered in 1970
• Pakistan psychiatric society was registered (1973)
• Pakistan association of clinical psychologists (1988)
 Register qualified & trained clinical psychologist
 Formulated ethical codes
 Conducted training workshops, symposiums & conferences
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