Preface

This audiobook course is designed for the college student who wants to get a thorough understanding of abnormal psychology. The prevalence of mental illness in all of the populations of the world is high, with many people being underdiagnosed and undertreated. In this course, we will talk about the history and paradigms of abnormal psychology so you can see how mental illness has been approached in the past and how it is approached today. Methods of diagnosing and treating mental disorders will also be covered as part of the course. Finally, there will be a thorough description of the various mental illnesses in humans of all ages so you will be able to recognize each of them and understand what is known about why they occur.

In chapter one of the course, we will start by looking at how mental illness has been viewed throughout history. You will see how different mental illness has been seen from ancient times until now. We will emphasize some of the ideas regarding mental illness and is treatment that evolved in the Twentieth Century. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has come out of Twentieth Century thoughts on mental illness. There are different paradigms of psychology and abnormal psychology discussed in this chapter, including how approaches to mental illness must take the patient’s culture into account in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.

Chapter two talks about the different ways that diagnostic testing can be used to identify mental illness. The basic psychological examination is used in almost all diagnoses of mental disorders but as you will see, there are multiple other tests that can be done, including cognitive testing, personality testing, and questionnaires used to screen for anxiety, depression, and dissociative disorders. We will also talk about neuropsychometric tests used in the diagnosis of neurological and psychological disorders, behavioral testing, and some of the newer imaging tests that will help in research circles to identify brain changes linked to mental illness.

The focus of chapter three in the course is mood disorders, of which there are several types. Mood disorders involve a disturbance in the brain that leads to episodes of low

mood, physical symptoms, and sometimes an elevated mood. In this chapter, we will talk about the different types of mood disorders and their management, including bipolar disorder, cyclothymia, major depression, dysthymic disorder or persistent depressive disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and postpartum depression. We will also talk about suicide, which is a major complication of untreated mood disorders of all types.

Chapter four focuses on anxiety disorders, of which there are several types. We will talk about the science of fear and how chronic fear states can lead to anxiety disorders. The different types of anxiety disorders include specific phobias and social anxiety disorder, which are related to specific things in the environment. Other anxiety disorders commonly seen that will be discussed are panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder, which are more pervasive and affect a person’s life in a more general way.

Chapter five in the course covers the different interrelated obsessive-compulsive disorders a person may have. The different types of OCD-related diseases seem different on the surface but they have similar etiologies, biological bases, and treatment strategies. The different obsessive-compulsive disorders talked about in this chapter include OCD itself, hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, and trichotillomania.

The focuses of chapter six are the different types of trauma-related disorders. Trauma is universal and involves several types of traumatic experiences, both acute and chronic in nature. These exposures have relatively predictable bodily and mental responses that will manifest themselves in different disorders. We will discuss post-traumatic stress disorder, which is one manifestation of having been exposed to trauma. There are several dissociative disorders that generally come from childhood trauma. Some will associate somatic disorders as separate but many of these are also related to past traumas, so this is covered as part of this chapter.

Chapter seven in the course talks about schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. There are psychotic disorders ranging from acute psychosis, which doesn’t last very long, to schizophrenia, which is a chronic and lifelong condition characterized by disordered thinking, hallucinations, delusions, and mood difficulties. As we will discuss,

diseases like schizophrenia can be very debilitating because they involve such severe symptoms preventing the acquisition of normal life skills.

The topic of chapter eight is substance use disorders. We will talk about the epidemiology and biology of substance abuse and what effects substances have on the body and brain. There are numerous different substance use disorders possible that we will discuss in the chapter, including tobacco and alcohol abuse, amphetamine and cocaine abuse, opioid addictions, sedative addictions, and abuse of less common substances, such as solvents and hallucinogens, which are not addictive but can still have devastating consequences on the person who abuses these substances.

Chapter nine in the course talks about the different eating disorders a person can have. Eating disorders vary greatly and can include binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, or bulimia nervosa. There is a miscellaneous category called OSFED we will talk about, which stands for other specified feeding and eating disorder. These all have significant implications on the person’s health and carry a risk of death for various reasons, depending on the type of disorder the person has.

Chapter ten involves a discussion of some of the different sexual disorders seen as part of abnormal psychology. We first talk about what some normal sexual behavior looks like, including how many people exhibit some aspects of a sexual disorder that do not actually qualify as being one. There are disorders of sexual arousal and sexual interest as well as orgasmic disorders that affect women to a greater degree than men. Men have their own disorders related to sexual performance that are discussed in this chapter. Finally, there are a number of paraphilias discussed in the chapter. Some of these are harmless but unusual sexual interests, while others are more dangerous because they harm others and are considered illegal in almost all societies.

Chapter eleven in the course discusses the different neurobiological and psychological disorders seen primarily in children. Some of these disorders have strong genetic and biologic components that are little affected by the environment. Others are mainly environmental in nature and involve things like early childhood trauma or lack of caregiver attachment. Each of these will be outlined as part of the topics covered in this

course, including autism, ADHD, conduct disorder, attachment disorders, and learning disabilities.

The main topic of chapter twelve is cognition and neurocognitive disorders seen mainly in older adults. While there is a tendency toward mild cognitive decline with age, there are degenerative cognitive disorders in this population that affect thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in a dramatic way and that often lead to death from the disorder or its complications. In the chapter, we will also talk about delirium, which is different from dementia but is important to recognize when it exists.

Chapter thirteen in the course covers the different personality disorders that can affect a person as part of what the DSM refers to as an Axis II disorder. These are enduring patterns of behaving, thinking, and feeling that can be seen as traits beginning in early childhood. There are three different clusters of personality disorders that are similar to one another. As you will see, because these are enduring patterns in a person, they are more difficult to treat than other mental illnesses.

In chapter fourteen, the focus will be on the many different psychological therapies that can be applied to the treatment of psychological disorders and mental illness. For each disorder, there are many possible effective treatments with some being more advantageous than others. Most psychotherapists will have specific approaches they prefer with a range of other ways they use to treat people who have minor or major psychological issues. In this chapter, we will touch just briefly on what each of these treatment strategies is all about.