The Experience Of Psychopathology

This book is devoted to understanding the experience of distress, well-being and psychopathology in daily life, with the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) in psychiatry, and contains contributions from the leading international pioneers of this approach. Experience sampling is a methodology for collecting reliable and valid data on patterns of behaviour, thought and feeling from real-life situations. It thus yields data complementary to those provided by neurobiological approaches to mental illnesses and is applicable to the study and management of a wide variety of mental disorders in their natural settings. The editor, who did much to bring ESM to prominence in psychiatry, has assembled a fascinating range of contributions, many of them previously unpublished, dealing with the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities of this approach.

This volume is a compilation of articles that shed light on psychopathology, how the one struggling with it experiences its implications, and how it affects everyday life. For one to be categorized as exhibiting positive mental health, an individual should not experience psychopathology, and additionally exhibit high levels of emotional well-being as well as high levels of psychological and social functioning. The dual-factor model of mental health suggests that enhancing positive mental health and alleviating psychopathology do not automatically go together and are not opposite of one another. There is accumulating evidence that psychopathology and positive mental health function along two different continua that are only moderately interrelated. However, to know what wellbeing is, understand good mental health, and enhance adaptive functioning, we need to explore and understand psychopathology, and how it affects us. The volume is divided into three conceptual sections: The Experience of Psychopathology, which is devoted to describing what it is and how it is experienced; The Effect of Psychopathology on Everyday Life, describes various effects that psychopathology has on the daily life of the sufferer; Coherence, Resilience and Recovery, which focuses on dealing with it, coping with the symptoms, and developing resilience. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Journal of Psychology.

A clear and concise guide to help recognise the signs and symptoms of psychiatric illness in clinical care.

This book introduces the reader to a clear and consistent method for in-depth exploration of subjective psychopathological experiences with the aim of helping to restore the ability within psychiatry and clinical psychology to draw qualitative distinctions between mental symptoms that are only apparently similar, thereby promoting a more precise characterization of experiential phenotypes. A wide range of mental disorders are considered in the book, each portrayed by a distinguished clinician. Each chapter begins with the description of a paradigmatic case study in order to introduce the reader directly to the patient’s lived world. The first-person perspective of the patient is the principal focus of attention. The essential, defining features of each psychopathological phenomenon and the meaning that the patient attaches to it are carefully analyzed in order to “make sense” of the patient’s apparently nonsensical experiences. In the second part of each chapter, the case study is discussed within the context of relevant literature and a detailed picture of the state of the art concerning the psychopathological understanding of the phenomenon at issue is provided. An Experiential Approach to Psychopathology, and the method it proposes, may be considered the result of convergence of classic phenomenological psychopathological concepts and updated clinical insights into patients’ lived experiences. It endorses three key principles: subjective phenomena are the quintessential feature of mental disorders; their qualitative study is mandatory; phenomenology has developed a rigorous method to grasp “what it is like” to be a person experiencing psychopathological phenomena. While the book is highly relevant for expert clinical phenomenologists, it is written in a way that will be readily understandable for trainees and young clinicians.

Psychopathology at School provides a timely response to concerns about the rising numbers of children whose behaviour is recognised and understood as a medicalised condition, rather than simply as poor behaviour caused by other factors. It is the first scholarly analysis of psychopathology which draws on the philosophers Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari and Arendt to examine the processes whereby children’s behaviour is pathologised. The heightened attention to mental disorders is contrasted with education practices in the early and mid-to-late twentieth century, and the emergence of a new conceptualization of childhood is explored. Taking education as a central component to the contemporary experience of growing up, the book charts the ways in which mental disorders have become commonplace in childhood and youth, from birth through to college and university, but also offers examples of where professionals have refused to pathologise children’s behaviour. The book examines the extent of the influence of psychopathology on the lives of children and young people, as well as the practices that infiltrate education and the possibilities for alternative educational responses that negate the diagnosis of mental disorder. Psychopathology at School is a must read for anyone concerned about the growing influence of psychopathology in education and will be of particular interest to educated readers and to scholars, students and professionals in education, psychiatry, psychology, child studies, youth studies, nursing, social work and sociology.

This is the most up-to-date text about the etiology and treatment of the most important psychological disorders. Intended for first-year graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology, the third edition of Psychopathology continues to focus on research and empirically supported information while also challenging students to think critically. The first part of the book is devoted to the issues, ideas, and concepts in psychopathology. These chapters give students a set of conceptual tools that will help them read more thoroughly and critically the second half of the book, which focuses on specific disorders. Each chapter in this section provides a definition, description, and brief history of the disorder it discusses, and outlines theory and research on etiology and empirically supported treatments. The length, organization, content, and level and style of writing are consistently tailored to the audience, and the disorders discussed are the ones most frequently encountered by students in their training and subsequent clinical careers. A new section addresses child and adolescent disorders, while updated sections include dimensional approaches, the biological bases of psychopathology, learning theories, developmental psychopathology, dissociative disorders, mental health and aging, and mood disorders. This valuable teaching tool is not only appropriate for students, but also professionals, who will continue to refer to it as a reference.

This book has been replaced by Psychopathology, Second Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-4761-6.

Understanding the factors that place an individual at greater risk of developing psychopathology has important implications for both treatment and prevention of psychological disorders. Of critical relevance in this regard is the exploration of the potential influence of the family. Parenting and the family environment are considered to significantly contribute to a child's early development and adjustment. It follows then that parental behavior may also be of importance in the development, maintenance and or the prevention of psychopathology. Over the past 50 years there has been a considerable amount of research as well as controversy surrounding the link between parenting and psychopathology. The purpose of this book is to provide researchers and clinicians with state-of-the art research findings, presented by experts in the field, on the role of the family in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. This edited book is divided into 3 sections. The first addresses broader issues of theory and methodology and the second provides separate chapters relating to the role of the family in the development and maintenance of specific psychopathologies. A final section discusses the involvement of the family in treatment and prevention.