PSYCHOPATHOLGY

 

PSYCHOPATHOLGY

1.      Introduction

The word psychopathology has a Greek origin. 'Psyche' means "soul/mind” “pathos' is defined as "suffering", and 'logos' is "the study of". Psychopathology means the study of mental illness or mental distress.  Psychopathology is also thestudy of the origin of mental illness or disorders,how they develop, symptoms they might produce in a person, their diagnosis (cause, course, consequences) and treatment.

            Patients with mental disorders are normally treated by psychiatrists(a medical doctor who specializes in mental health) and/orpsychotherapist (counsellors) who specialize in mental health.  They diagnose and treat patients through medication or psychotherapy (the use of psychological methods to treat mental illness).These professionals systematically diagnose individuals with mental disorders using specific diagnostic (investigative) criteria and symptomatology found within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

            Developmental psychopathology is the study of the development of psychological disorders.Examples of developmental psychopathology are psychopathy(Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient (lacking/poor) emotional responses, lack of empathy (compassion), and poor behavioral controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance (eccentricity) and criminal behavior), autism (a mental condition in which a person finds it difficult to communicate or form relationships with other people), schizophrenia (a serious mental illness in which a person confuses the real world and the world of the imagination and often behaves in strange and unexpected ways) and depression. Psychopathology can be best understood as normal development gone wrong or distorted.

1.1.Difference between Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology.

—  Abnormal psychology is a branch of psychology which studies abnormal behavior (behavioural aspect) while psychopathology refers to the study of mental illnesses (disease aspect).

—  In abnormal psychology, the psychologists study abnormal behavior that includes a wide range of behavior whereas in psychopathology, the focus is on mental illnesses. 

—  Abnormal psychology studies the nature of psychopathology and psychopathology can be viewed as a subdivision of abnormal psychology.

—  Psychopathology is a similar term to abnormal psychology but has more of an implication of an underlying pathology (disease process).

—  Psychopathology is a term more commonly used in the medical specialty known as psychiatry.