PSYCH 2AP3 Lecture Notes - Psych, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Thomas Szasz
15 Jun 2013
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Document Summary
Extreme deviations from the statistical norm medium, mean, norm. Extreme or important violations of social or cultural expectations. Symptoms cause significant concern for the individual. A criterion alone does not work well to diagnose if you are higher or lower than a certain point on the statistical deviance curve. Where is the cutoff: anxiety, fear, depression. What about other negatives: stubbornness, laziness, greed. What about abnormal positives: happiness, generosity, kindness there is some directionality. What"s acceptable isn"t always the same, even in the same culture. But on the other hand cultures differ in what they consider acceptable if disorders are brain-based, they cannot be culturally relative there are culture-specific disorders. Where do new illnesses come from, ex. Thomas szasz all mental illness cultural. What is the role of culture in produce the patterns of behaviour that we see as abnormal. What about terrorist: highly well adjusted individuals, nothing about them suggests mental disorder.
