Chapter 15 Introduction

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CHAPTER 15

Psychological Disorders

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I felt the need to clean my room at home in Indianapolis every Sunday and would spend four to five hours at it. I would take every book out of the bookcase, dust and put it back. At the time I loved doing it. Then I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I couldn’t stop. The clothes in my closet hung exactly two fingers apart…. I made a ritual of touching the wall in my bedroom before I went out because something bad would happen if I didn’t do it the right way. I had a constant anxiety about it as a kid, and it made me think for the first time that I might be nuts.

Marc, diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (from Summers, 1996)

Whenever I get depressed it’s because I’ve lost a sense of self. I can’t find reasons to like myself. I think I’m ugly. I think no one likes me…. I become grumpy and short-tempered. Nobody wants to be around me. I’m left alone. Being alone confirms that I am ugly and not worth being with. I think I’m responsible for everything that goes wrong.

Greta, diagnosed with depression (from Thorne, 1993, p. 21)

Voices, like the roar of a crowd, came. I felt like Jesus; I was being crucified. It was dark. I just continued to huddle under the blanket, feeling weak, laid bare and defenseless in a cruel world I could no longer understand.

Stuart, diagnosed with schizophrenia (from Emmons et al., 1997)

Now and then, all of us feel, think, or act in ways that may resemble a psychological disorder. We feel anxious, depressed, withdrawn, or suspicious, just less intensely and more briefly. So it’s no wonder that we are drawn to try to understand disturbed mental states—we sometimes see ourselves in the psychological disorders we study. “To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal,” said William James (1842–1910).

Another reason for our curiosity is that most of us will, at some point, encounter someone with a psychological disorder. Personally or through friends or family, we may experience the bewilderment and pain of unexplained physical symptoms, irrational fears, or a feeling that life is not worth living. In one study of 26 American college campuses, 32 percent of students reported an apparent mental health problem (Eisenberg et al., 2011).

Worldwide, some 450 million people live with mental or behavior disorders (WHO, 2010). Although their rates and symptoms vary by culture, no known society is free of two terrible disorders—major depression and schizophrenia (Baumeis-ter & Härter, 2007; Draguns, 1990a,b, 1997). This chapter examines these disorders and others. Chapter 16 considers their treatment.

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