Unit, reading

Topics

1

Readings: “normality” Szasz “myth of mental illness” posted on myjcu; Atwood, "Exploring the abyss of madness"  (Chapter 2 of The Abyss of Madness); pages 1-10 Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (both on reserve in library)

Importance of theory. Normal and abnormal; healthy and pathological: statistical and functional definitions

Assignment: read Szasz, Atwood and PDM and prepare comments to discuss in groups next time.

2

“Theory” “theoretical approaches”, “self psych.”notes in course packet and online;      PDM pgs 483 - 507;        

 Text ch 2

Specific theoretical perspectives in psychopathology. Reading & interpreting findings in psychopathology. Description vs Explanation, knowledge vs understanding.

Major theoretical approaches to psychopathology; a brief introduction to the Biological, Cognitive and Psychodynamic approaches. Body-mind interactionism. Implications of the approach for the therapy chosen.

3

Text ch. 1,

PDM p 11-31

Diagnosis and psychopathology: why classify categories of mental illness? How should these categories be classified: descriptive, subjective and causal classifications. How does the diagnostician diagnose?

4

PDM p 483-509

“The irrational, the peremptory and the unbidden” Standard nosological categories of psychopathology: DSM-IV by symptom clusters: advantages and disadvantages; theoretical implications. Diagnosis as label.

5

“Pathogenic conditions” (class notes)

Pathogenic conditions versus healthy development

6

Text ch 3, 4, “levels of pathology”; Atwood: Abyss of Madness: ch 2 Exploring the Abyss of Madness, Greenberg "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden"

Levels of pathological organization: Neurosis, Psychosis and Borderline levels.Discussion of Greenberg's book. 

7

text ch 5, 6;

defensive styles of each level, therapeutic implications

8

Text pp 145-150, ch 15 reading: Davies/ Frawley ch 10; Ferenczi confusion of tongues; Atwood ch 5 "the unbearable and the unsayable"; Liotti "understanding dissociative processes"

Types of character organization

Dissociative personalities. The unbearable trauma and the creation of the “other” self. Dissociation in general and its use in other disturbances.

9

Text ch 14

Freud: Katharina (from Studies in Hysteria)

Hysterical and histrionic personality: Freud's discovery, repression and hysteria, beyond Freud: forms of hysteria. Theoretical considerations – repression vs dissociation

10

Readings: Gabbard anxiety; Bowlby anxious attachment

Anxiety neurosis, or panic disorders, phobias. True vs. pseudo-phobias. Biological elements in anxiety. Childhood roots.

11

Text ch 13; Brandchaft chapter 11 "Obsessional disorders"

Obsessive and compulsive personalities – beyond the anal phase – biological predispositions

12

Text ch. 11 reading: PDM p 44-47 & 108-115 Bowlby: "sadness & depression" from Attachment and Loss Atwood  ch 7 and 8 "The dark sun of melancholia" & "What is a Ghost" (from The Abyss of Madness)

Depressive and manic personalities- depression and loss, mourning, unshared sorrow, depression and guilt – biological elements of depression. Elements of dissociation in cyclothymic disorders.

13

Text ch.12  

Masochistic or self-defeating personalities: the trauma sought and repeated; suffering to prevent loss – its tie to depression

14,

Text ch. 8, reading: Miller: gifted child

Kohut: "The Two Analyses of Mr. Z" (Int J Psychoanlysis) optional

Narcissistic personalities: two views of narcissism and two types of narcissistic personality: Kernberg's oblivious, self-centered and Kohut's hypervigilant, depleted narcissist. The self in narcissism. Narcissism and shame.

15

Gabbard: "eating disorders" from Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice; Sands, “Bulimia, dissociation and empathy”

Eating disorders – the "hunger artist" and the search for the lost self: Anorexia Nervosa. Guilt and self-loathing: Bulimia Nervosa and the purging of badness; Dissiociative aspects of bulimia and other forms of self-harm

16

Text ch 9 PDM pp 33-34 & 142-146,

Schizoid personalities- and the range to schizophrenia. Loneliness and the schizoid person. Schizophrenia and its cognitive symptoms.

17

Text ch. 10

Paranoid personalities: paranoia and guilt: the mechanism of projection in paranoia..

18

Text ch. 7

Psychopathic or antisocial personalities. Acting instead of talking. The absence of shame or guilt. Disintegrated families of origin, emotional deprivation. Attachment and the lack of it.

19

reading: Firestone (Suicide and the inner voice): p 35-58, 94-103, 219, 278-296, Atwood "The tragedy of self-destruction" (The Abyss of Madness)

Suicide – causes, prevention, suicide and the "inner voice"