BCS 185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Autobiographical Memory, Anhedonia, Emil Kraepelin
10 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Idea of chemical imbalance leading to mental disease is pushed by pharmaceutical companies. Harmful dysfunction (wakefield, 1992): disorders are harmful (impair functioning normally), dysfunctional (organ not fulfilling its evolutionary purpose: can"t really be defined disorders are theoretical constructs without operational definitions, fallible indicators: eg. , symptoms, diagnostic systems. Functions of diagnostic symptoms: facilitate communication (eg. , hospital record keeping, highlight key features, establish relationship between disorders. Allow for taxonomic organization of disorders: a good system will provide predictions, surplus information. Dsm-iv: emil kraepelin: manic-depression vs. dementia praecox, apa published first dsm in 1952. Categorical: diagnoses are treated as discrete categories threshold between normal and abnormal: have disease or don"t have disease, in line with medical model, simplifies communication, natural inclination to use categories, maps well onto clinical decision-making. Clear cut-off between normal, abnormal is favored by insurance companies: can identify rare but qualitatively different syndromes. Comorbidity: chance of having more than 1 disorder at once.
