The History of Psychopathology
-Dogmatism: people cling to their assumptions
-Dogma: set of principles
-Empiricism: knowledge gained through observation
-Scientific Method: a procedure for finding the truth using empirical evidence
-Any scientific theory that can’t be disproven is worse than useless
-The Sacred Approach: psychopathology was the expression of transcendent magical action
from external forces
-Animalistic Phase: connection b/w primitive beings and nature, world is populated by animate
entities and forces that act on mind and soul
-Mythological Phase: symptoms were thought to be caused by a deity who could also cure it
-Demonological Phase: competing forces struggled for superiority (creative and positive vs.
destructive and negative)
-Early Hindus: passions and strong emotions brought physical ailments
-Three emotional inclinations: wise and enlightened goodness, impetuous passions, blind crudity
of ignorance
-Indian Cultures: doshas - bodily fluids similar to Greek humoral theory
-Mental disorders are metaphysical
-Chinese Medicine: vicious air, abnormal weather, emotional stress
-Principles of Tao: achieved by integrating the individual self into the realm of nature
-Personality types portrayed on the basis of a combination of the 5 elements
-Greek Civilization: Pythagoras thought the mathematical principles of balance and ratio
accounted for characterological differences
-The soul was in 3 parts: reason (reflected truth), intelligence (synthesized sensory perceptions)
and impulse (bodily energies)
-Brain: center of rational parts of soul
-Heart: irrational parts
-Hippocrates thought the source of all disorders was within the patient, not within spiritual
phenomena
-4 basic temperaments: choleric (excess in yellow bile), melancholic (excess in black bile),
sanguine (excess in blood), and phlegmatic (excess in phlegm)
-Plato: emotional forces overwhelm everyday behavior, discord between the rational side and
emotions
-Mental disorders are from irrational superstitions and erroneous beliefs
-Aristotle: we need experimental verification, first philosopher to take inductive and empirical
approach
-Emil Kraepelin: established definitive patterns of manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar) and
dementia praecox (schizophrenic disorders), termed autistic temperament
-Eugen Bleuler: description of schizophrenia
-Adolf Meyer: disorders are a consequence of environmental factors & life events, psychologica
approach to schizophrenia
-Sigmund Freud: psychosexual development
,Classification
-Ego-dystonic (OCD) vs. ego-syntonic (OCPD)
-Many disorders are ego-dystonic
-Taxonomy: the study of how groups are formed
-Nosological principles: what is the best way to classify disorders?
-Purpose of Classification: nomenclature for practitioners, basis for organizing and retrieving
info, describes common patterns of symptoms, basis for making predictions, basis for the
development of theories
-Symptoms: self-reported issues
-Signs: issues observed by others
-When signs and symptoms co-occur frequently, the condition is a syndrome (only descriptive,
doesn’t regard causes)
-Disorder: a pattern of symptoms & signs that includes an implied impact on the functioning of a
individual
-Disease: condition w/ known etiology, known path from causal agent to the S&S
-Categorical: categorical advantages: easier b/c “black and white” / disadvantages: loss of info
-Dimensions: best for affective disorders or personality disorders
Research & Causation
-Aristotle: we don’t have knowledge of something until we know its cause
-Hume: we perceive casualty based on temporality and contiguity, we are naturally inclined to
attribute the experience of constant contiguity to casualty
-John Stuart Mill: 5 Methods of Induction
1) Direct Method of Agreement: if something is a necessary cause, it must always be prese
when we observe the effect
2) Method of Difference: if two situations are exactly the same besides one aspect and the
effect occurs in only 1 situation, that one different aspect is likely to be the cause of the effect
3) Combination of the methods of agreement and difference
4) Method of Residue: if many conditions cause many outcomes and we matched all except
one, the remaining condition must cause the remaining outcome
5) Method of Concomitant Variation: if one property of a phenomenon varies in tandem w/
some property of the circumstance of interest, then that property most likely causes the
circumstance
-Austin Bradford Hill: 9 Criteria for Causal Inference
1) Strength: larger the association, more likely it is causal
2) Consistency: consistent observations of suspected cause and effect in various times and
places raise the likelihood of causality
3) Specificity: the proposed cause results in the specific effect in a specific population
4) Temporality: the cause precedes the effect in time
5) Biological gradient: greater exposure to the cause leads to greater effect
6) Plausibility: the relationship b/w cause and effect is biologically and scientifically plausible
-Dogmatism: people cling to their assumptions
-Dogma: set of principles
-Empiricism: knowledge gained through observation
-Scientific Method: a procedure for finding the truth using empirical evidence
-Any scientific theory that can’t be disproven is worse than useless
-The Sacred Approach: psychopathology was the expression of transcendent magical action
from external forces
-Animalistic Phase: connection b/w primitive beings and nature, world is populated by animate
entities and forces that act on mind and soul
-Mythological Phase: symptoms were thought to be caused by a deity who could also cure it
-Demonological Phase: competing forces struggled for superiority (creative and positive vs.
destructive and negative)
-Early Hindus: passions and strong emotions brought physical ailments
-Three emotional inclinations: wise and enlightened goodness, impetuous passions, blind crudity
of ignorance
-Indian Cultures: doshas - bodily fluids similar to Greek humoral theory
-Mental disorders are metaphysical
-Chinese Medicine: vicious air, abnormal weather, emotional stress
-Principles of Tao: achieved by integrating the individual self into the realm of nature
-Personality types portrayed on the basis of a combination of the 5 elements
-Greek Civilization: Pythagoras thought the mathematical principles of balance and ratio
accounted for characterological differences
-The soul was in 3 parts: reason (reflected truth), intelligence (synthesized sensory perceptions)
and impulse (bodily energies)
-Brain: center of rational parts of soul
-Heart: irrational parts
-Hippocrates thought the source of all disorders was within the patient, not within spiritual
phenomena
-4 basic temperaments: choleric (excess in yellow bile), melancholic (excess in black bile),
sanguine (excess in blood), and phlegmatic (excess in phlegm)
-Plato: emotional forces overwhelm everyday behavior, discord between the rational side and
emotions
-Mental disorders are from irrational superstitions and erroneous beliefs
-Aristotle: we need experimental verification, first philosopher to take inductive and empirical
approach
-Emil Kraepelin: established definitive patterns of manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar) and
dementia praecox (schizophrenic disorders), termed autistic temperament
-Eugen Bleuler: description of schizophrenia
-Adolf Meyer: disorders are a consequence of environmental factors & life events, psychologica
approach to schizophrenia
-Sigmund Freud: psychosexual development
,Classification
-Ego-dystonic (OCD) vs. ego-syntonic (OCPD)
-Many disorders are ego-dystonic
-Taxonomy: the study of how groups are formed
-Nosological principles: what is the best way to classify disorders?
-Purpose of Classification: nomenclature for practitioners, basis for organizing and retrieving
info, describes common patterns of symptoms, basis for making predictions, basis for the
development of theories
-Symptoms: self-reported issues
-Signs: issues observed by others
-When signs and symptoms co-occur frequently, the condition is a syndrome (only descriptive,
doesn’t regard causes)
-Disorder: a pattern of symptoms & signs that includes an implied impact on the functioning of a
individual
-Disease: condition w/ known etiology, known path from causal agent to the S&S
-Categorical: categorical advantages: easier b/c “black and white” / disadvantages: loss of info
-Dimensions: best for affective disorders or personality disorders
Research & Causation
-Aristotle: we don’t have knowledge of something until we know its cause
-Hume: we perceive casualty based on temporality and contiguity, we are naturally inclined to
attribute the experience of constant contiguity to casualty
-John Stuart Mill: 5 Methods of Induction
1) Direct Method of Agreement: if something is a necessary cause, it must always be prese
when we observe the effect
2) Method of Difference: if two situations are exactly the same besides one aspect and the
effect occurs in only 1 situation, that one different aspect is likely to be the cause of the effect
3) Combination of the methods of agreement and difference
4) Method of Residue: if many conditions cause many outcomes and we matched all except
one, the remaining condition must cause the remaining outcome
5) Method of Concomitant Variation: if one property of a phenomenon varies in tandem w/
some property of the circumstance of interest, then that property most likely causes the
circumstance
-Austin Bradford Hill: 9 Criteria for Causal Inference
1) Strength: larger the association, more likely it is causal
2) Consistency: consistent observations of suspected cause and effect in various times and
places raise the likelihood of causality
3) Specificity: the proposed cause results in the specific effect in a specific population
4) Temporality: the cause precedes the effect in time
5) Biological gradient: greater exposure to the cause leads to greater effect
6) Plausibility: the relationship b/w cause and effect is biologically and scientifically plausible
