Mental Illness

Introduction

This paper will attempt to explain how mental illness in psychology is different from other fields of study. The paper will also attempt to show how they are different from psychological mental illness while highlighting the essential difference between mental illeness and other illnesses.

A mental or psychological illness is a behavioral pattern that is associated with extreme distress or eccentricity which cannot be controlled by the person. The moment the person loses control, he or she enters into the domain of a psychological illness.

Mental illness is different from other forms of illness because mental Illness is an abnormal mental condition. Mental illnesses are related to changes of character and emotions. This change may be congenital, emotional and interpersonal impairments. The term disease of the mind refers to a condition that causes a specific disease having signs and symptoms. There is another way of referring to mental illness, for example, mental disorder, psychiatric disorder, psychological disorder, emotional problems and others (Tamara and Laura, Pp. 49).

Mental disorders can be described as major depression. Generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are few among many others. Diseases of the mind are related in two ways, biological, for example, (genetic, neurochemical, brain structure) and psychosocial (e.g. cognitive biases, emotional problems, trauma and causes of disadvantage). Mental illness has always been related functionally impaired, for example, ability to work and cope in society (Ainsworth and Baker).

Discussion

The concept of mental illness as a biomedical condition distinct from social context, has been subject to extensive criticism by social scientists and by some psychiatrists. Prominent writers such as Michel Foucault (1926-1984), R. D. Laing (1927-1989), and Thomas Szasz (b. 1920) have disputed the validity of a concept based on cultural definitions of normalcy and often mediated by social and economic concerns. Every culture has some concept of “madness,” defined as negatively perceived deviant behaviors that are distinguished from merely antisocial behaviors because they are incomprehensible within that cultural idiom (Patricia and Baker, Pp. 28).

Despite transnational acceptance of ICD codes, the identification of the behavior or behavioral syndrome as denoting mental illness by ordinary citizens, as opposed to mental health professionals, is still to a considerable extent culture-bound. In certain individuals, religious delusions or hallucinations may be viewed as extraordinary gifts rather than symptoms. It is only when the symptoms impair role functioning and productivity that the person is labeled as mentally ill. Depression is sometimes manifested as somatization (diffuse bodily complaints) in some traditional cultures and is conceptualized by the sufferer as a physical rather than psychological condition. Stigmatization of mental illness is ubiquitous, yet research shows that social factors may affect perceptions of deviance and subsequent labeling and discrimination. In many cultures stigma seems to be related to chronic dysfunction and dependency, or to assumed threat, rather than to bizarre behaviors.

Prolonged hospitalization for mental illness has long been on the decline in the industrialized world. Most mental disorders currently are treated on an outpatient basis, with various forms of individual, group, and family psychotherapy and ...