Changes Are Seen in Schizophrenia?Ventricle Changes in SchizophreniaSchizophrenia and Brain NetworksNeurotransmitters Involved in SchizophreniaHow Are Cognitive Processes Changed in Schizophrenia?Treating Individuals With SchizophreniaLENS: Mercy Bookings of Mental PatientsAntipsychotic MedicationsPsychosocial Interventions for SchizophreniaLENS: Mental Health Networks of Those With Serious Mental DisordersSummaryStudy ResourcesReview QuestionsFor Further ReadingKey Terms and ConceptsSAGE edge16 Chapter 14 • Personality DisordersPersonality Disorders and PersonalityWhat Is a Personality Disorder?Comorbidity of Personality DisordersCultural LENS: Global Mental Health: Personality DisordersPersonality Disorders and Typical Personality TraitsThe Characteristics of a Healthy SelfTypical Personality TraitsEvolution and Different Personality CharacteristicsMaladaptive Personality Traits and Personality DisordersCategories and DimensionsEnvironmental and Genetic Studies of Personality DisordersOdd, Eccentric Personality DisordersParanoid Personality DisorderSchizoid Personality DisorderSchizotypal Personality DisorderCASE OF NATHAN JAMES: Schizotypal Personality DisorderDramatic Emotional Personality DisordersAntisocial Personality Disorder and PsychopathyAntisocial Personality DisorderPsychopathyCASE OF JIM NELSON: Mandated Treatment for Child Sexual AbuseBrain Involvement in PsychopathyBorderline Personality DisorderCASE OF AMY JAMES: Borderline Personality DisorderBrain Studies of Those With Borderline Personality DisorderTrust and Borderline Personality DisorderHistrionic Personality DisorderCASE OF AMY PORTER: Histrionic Personality DisorderNarcissistic Personality DisorderCASE OF DAWN NICHOLS: Narcissistic Personality DisorderAnxious Fearful Personality DisordersAvoidant Personality DisorderDependent Personality DisorderObsessive-Compulsive Personality DisorderTreatment of Personality DisordersDialectical Behavior TherapyOther Proven Therapies for Treating Borderline Personality DisorderLENS: Marsha Linehan, Creating Dialectical Behavior Therapy From Her Own ExperiencesTreatments for Other Personality DisordersUnderstanding Changes in DSM–5: Personality DisordersSummaryStudy ResourcesReview QuestionsFor Further ReadingKey Terms and ConceptsSAGE edge
17 Chapter 15 • Neurocognitive DisordersNormal Cognitive Changes Related to AgingDo Cognitive Abilities Change With Age?How the Brain Changes With AgeDeliriumCharacteristics, Prevalence, and Causes of DeliriumCASE OF BOBBY BALDWIN: DeliriumMild and Major Neurocognitive DisordersCharacteristics, Prevalence, and Diagnosis of Neurocognitive DisordersNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Alzheimer’s DiseaseCharacteristics, Prevalence, and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s DiseaseUnderstanding Changes in DSM–5: Neurocognitive DisordersNeurofibrillary Tangles and Neuritic PlaquesGenes and Alzheimer’s DiseaseNeuroimaging of Alzheimer’s DiseaseOther Neurocognitive DisordersVascular Neurocognitive DisorderFrontotemporal Neurocognitive DisorderThe Development of Frontotemporal Neurocognitive Disorder in a Scientist and ArtistNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Traumatic Brain InjuryNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Lewy Body DementiaNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Parkinson’s DiseaseNeurocognitive Disorder Due to HIV InfectionSubstance-Induced Neurocognitive DisorderNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Huntington’s DiseaseLENS: The Silent Epidemic of Concussion in SportsNeurocognitive Disorder Due to Prion DiseasePrevention, Treatment, and SupportPrevention of Neurocognitive DisordersCan an Individual’s Activities Be Protective in Brain Changes?Treatment of and Support for Those With Neurocognitive DisordersLENS: Dementia-Friendly CommunitiesSummaryStudy ResourcesReview QuestionsFor Further ReadingKey Terms and ConceptsSAGE edge
18 Chapter 16 • The Law and Mental HealthThe American Legal System and the Insanity DefenseLENS: Mental Health and the Law in the Real World—Failure of a System?Competency to Stand TrialA Public Case: Andrea YatesEthical and Legal Issues in TreatmentThe Ethical and Legal Aspects of the Initial Contract for TreatmentEmergency CommitmentSexual Predator LawsA Public Case: Jeffrey DahmerCultural LENS: Global Mental Health: Prisoners and Mental HealthNeuroscience and Evolutionary Perspectives on the Legal Aspects of PsychopathologyLENS: The Implications of Solitary ConfinementUnderstanding Changes in DSM–5: Legal IssuesSummaryStudy ResourcesReview QuestionsFor Further ReadingKey Terms and ConceptsSAGE edge
19 Glossary
20 References
21 Author Index
Preface
Abnormal psychology books from the middle of the last century largely contained descriptions of particular disorders. However, there would not be much written about the experiences of having a mental disorder. Since that time, society has a new conceptualization of what it means to have a mental disorder. There is also a greater awareness of how many people with a mental illness are able to live full lives and have productive occupations. In this text, I want to introduce some of these individuals and describe their experiences.
Also, in a textbook from the last century, there would not be much written about research studies. The research included would be focused exclusively on studies related directly to abnormal psychology. It would not be connected with the larger human condition and how mental illness is part of our evolutionary history and related to human cognition, emotion, and motor processes. In many ways, the field of abnormal psychology at that time remained disconnected from other areas of psychology as well as the life sciences.
Jumping ahead to the beginning of the 2000s, abnormal psychology textbooks included more research. However, the amount of research related to the neurosciences was limited. There was little in the way of brain imaging and the manner in which different disorders are related to one another on an underlying level. However, there was a realization that mental illness is a complex process and cannot be explained on a single level such as the possibility of mental illness being produced by a single gene or by one type of environmental experience.
Using this broader perspective, the dichotomous positions of nature versus nurture or innate versus learned fuse into the larger question of how aspects of each lead to an understanding of behavior and experience and their relationship to mental illness. Understanding that human behavior and experience take place on a number of different levels replaces the strict dichotomous approach pitting one level against another. On a molecular level, for example, we now know that genes must be turned on and off. What this means is that many significant human processes are directed by the environment. That is, environmental factors are able to influence which genes turn on and off. On a higher level, the “genetics versus culture” debate may be of limited value without understanding the manner in which humans both live within a culture and are influenced by historical environments.
Development of Brain Imaging
As we entered the twenty-first century, questions of importance to psychology were being embraced by the neurosciences. This allowed for both richness and an integration of scientific information concerning important psychological questions. In the past 25 years, we have seen a shift in focus that has included the “Decade of the Brain” of the 1990s as well as a real emergence of the cognitive and affective neurosciences. A number of scientists have also begun to ask how neuroscience approaches can influence psychopathology and inform the diagnosis of different types of mental disorders.
Recent developments in brain imaging have provided important perspectives on psychopathological processes. These developments include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG), and their basics should be understood by students seeking an overview of psychopathology. The perspectives based on these brain imaging techniques are beginning to emphasize the manner in which underlying cortical networks may reflect particular changes
