Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T08:21:07.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Abnormal Psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2019

By
Petteri Pietikainen
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Wade E. Pickren
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Wade E. Pickren
Affiliation:
Ithaca College, New York
Get access

Summary

During the past 150 years, psychiatrists and psychologists have detected a wide array of mental and behavioural abnormalities in humans, ranging from hysteria, neurosis, and mental deficiency (“feeblemindedness”) to psychopathy, sexual perversions, alcoholism, and criminality. In particular, the differentiation between everyday neuroses and severe mental disorders or psychoses has played an all-important role since the late nineteenth century. In their milder forms, neuroses were deemed equivalent to the common cold, while psychoses were heavily stigmatising and incapacitating mental disturbances. What was common to both neuroses and psychoses was that they indicated an abnormal state of mind. This chapter examines the early phase of the modern history of abnormal psychology in the Western cultural sphere. First, it looks at the idea and term of abnormality and its conceptual relations with “deviance” and “maladjustment.” Then it outlines the early history of the psychopathological studies on abnormality, focusing on key figures such as Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Gustav Jung. From these pioneers the chapter moves on to examine experimental neuroses and psychopathy, perhaps the most widely known form of maladjustment and abnormality. In conclusion, the most recent trends in abnormal psychology are discussed.

Keywords

abnormalitypsychopathologydeviancemaladjustmentneurosispsychosispsychopathy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Intellectual History of Psychology , pp. 441 - 467
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beard, G. M. (1880). A Practical Treatise in Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia), Its Symptoms, Nature, Sequences, Treatment. New York: W. Wood & Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beard, G. M. (1881) American Nervousness, Its Causes and Consequences. New York: Putnam’s Sons.Google Scholar
Beard, G. M. (1884). Sexual Neurasthenia (Nervous Exhaustion). Edited by Rockwell, A. D.. New York: E. B. Treat.Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E., & Link, C. (1995). Anxiety disorders: Clinical section. In Berrios, G. E. & Porter, R. (Eds), A History of Clinical Psychiatry (pp. 545–562). London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (1981). Studies on hysteria. In Strachey, J. & Freud, A. (Eds.), Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, (Vol 2.) London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. (Original German work published 1895).Google Scholar
Brinkmann, S. (2016). Diagnostic Cultures. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brown, J. F. (1940). The Psychodynamics of Abnormal Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Clark, M. J. (1995). Anxiety disorders: Social section. In Berrios, G. E. & Porter, R. (Eds.), A History of Clinical Psychiatry (pp. 563–572). London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Cleckley, H. (1964). The Mask of Sanity. St. Louis: Mosby.Google Scholar
Crabtree, A. (1993). From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Decker, H. S. (2013). The Making of DSM-III. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1963). Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, Pt. III, Lecture XXV. In Strachey, J. & Freud, A. (Eds.), Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 16, pp. 392–411). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. (Original work published 1916–1917).Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1981a). Further remarks on the neuro-psychoses of defence. In Strachey, J. & Freud, A. (Eds.), Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 3, pp. 162–190). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. (Original work published 1896).Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1981b). The psychical mechanism of forgetfulness. In Strachey, J. & Freud, A. (Eds.), Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 3, pp. 287–297). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. (Original work published 1898).Google Scholar
Fromm, E. (1961). Escape from Freedom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Original work published 1941).Google Scholar
Fromm, E. (1969). The Sane Society. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Original work published 1955).Google Scholar
Gadelius, B. (1914). Nymfomani. In Nordisk Familjebok (Vol. 20, pp. 254–255). Stockholm: Nordisk Familjeboks.Google Scholar
Gijswijt-Hofstra, M., & Porter, R. (Eds.). (2001). Cultures of Neurasthenia from Beard to the First World War. Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilman, S. L., King, H., Porter, R., Rousseau, G. S., & Showalter, E. (1993). Hysteria beyond Freud. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Goethe, J. W. (1982). Italian Journey. Translated by Auden, W. H. and Mayer, Elizabeth. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. (Original German work published 1817).Google Scholar
Goetz, C., Bonduelle, M., & Gelfand, T. (1995). Charcot: Constructing Neurology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. (1994). Saying ‘I’: Victor Cousin, Caroline Angebert, and the politics of selfhood in 19th century France. In Roth, M. (Ed.), Rediscovering History: Culture, Politics, and the Psyche (pp. 321–335). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gøtzsche, P. C., Smith, R., & Drummond, R. (2013). Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare. London: Radcliffe.Google Scholar
Groves, E. R., & Blanchard, P. (1930). Introduction to Mental Hygiene. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1995). Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Healy, D. (2012). Pharmageddon. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, E. (1996). The Romance of American Psychology. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Horney, K. (1991). Neurosis and Human Growth. New York: Norton. (Original work published 1950).Google Scholar
Horney, K. (1999a). The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. London: Routledge. (Original work published 1937).Google Scholar
Horney, K. (1999b). New Ways in Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge. (Original work published 1939).Google Scholar
Horney, K. (1999c). Our Inner Conflicts. London: Routledge. (Original work published 1946).Google Scholar
Hustvedt, A. (2011). Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Janet, P. (1907). The Major Symptoms of Hysteria. Fifteen Lectures Given in the Medical School of Harvard University. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Janet, P. (1910). Chapter Four. In Subconscious Phenomena. Boston: Gorham Press.Google Scholar
Janet, P. (2001). Study of cases of anterograde amnesia in a disease of mental disintegration. History of Psychiatry, 12, 485–488. (Original French work published 1892).Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1970). The state of psychotherapy today. In McGuire, W. (Ed.), The Collected Works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 10, pp. 157–173). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original German work published 1934).Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1973). The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 2, Experimental Researches. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1977). C.G. Jung Speaking. Interviews and Encounters. Edited by McGuire, W. & Hull, R. F. C.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1987). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Recorded and edited by Jaffé, Aniela. Translated by Richard, and Winston, Clara. London: Fontana. (Original German work published 1962).Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (2014). Analytical Psychology, Its Theory and Practice (The Tavistock Lectures). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kirschenbaum, H., & Henderson, V. L. (1989). Introduction. In Kirschenbaum, H. & Henderson, V. L. (Eds.), The Carl Rogers Reader (pp. xi–xvi). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Kivimäki, V. (2013). Battled Nerves: Finnish Soldiers’ War Experience, Trauma, and Military Psychiatry, 1941–44. Turku, Finland: Åbo Akademi University.Google Scholar
Koch, J. L. A. (1891–1893). Die Psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten I–III. Ravensburg, Germany: O. Maier.Google Scholar
Kutchins, H., & Kirk, S. A. (1999). Making Us Crazy: DSM: The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Laing, A. (1996). R.D. Laing: A Biography. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.Google Scholar
Laing, R. D. (1983). The Politics of Experience. New York: Pantheon. (Original work published 1967).Google Scholar
Laing, R. D. (1984). The Divided Self. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1959).Google Scholar
Leary, D. B. (1928). Modern Psychology: Normal and Abnormal. Philadelphia: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Makari, G. (2010). Revolution in Mind. The Creation of Psychoanalysis. London: Duckworth Overlook.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. (1961). Eupsychia: The good society. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1, 1–11.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. (1962). Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. (1973). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. H., & Mittelmann, B. (1951). Principles of Abnormal Psychology: The Dynamics of Psychic Illness. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
McKinney, W. T. (1988). Models of Mental Disorders: A New Comparative Psychiatry. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, N. (1998). How to become a forgotten intellectual: Intellectual movements and the rise and fall of Erich Fromm. Sociological Forum, 13, 215–246.Google Scholar
Micale, M. S. (1995). Approaching Hysteria: Disease and Its Interpretations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Micale, M. S. (2001). Jean-Martin Charcot and les névroses traumatiques: From medicine to culture in French trauma theory of the late nineteenth century. In Micale, M. S. & Lerner, P. (Eds.), Traumatic Pasts (pp. 115–139). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Micale, M. S. (2014). The ten most important changes in psychiatry since World War II. History of Psychiatry, 25, 485–491.Google Scholar
Mills, C. W. (1967). The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1959).Google Scholar
Moynihan, R., & Cassels, A. (2005). Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients. New York: Nation Books.Google Scholar
Munthe, A. (1975). The Story of San Michele. London: John Murray. (Original work published 1929).Google Scholar
Parhi, K. (2018). Born to Be Deviant: Histories of the Diagnosis of Psychopathy in Finland. Oulu, Finland: University of Oulu.Google Scholar
Parhi, K., & Pietikainen, P. (2017). Socialising the anti-social: Psychopathy, psychiatry and social engineering in Finland, 1945–1968. Social History of Medicine, 30, 637–660.Google Scholar
Pavlov, I. (1941). Conditioned Reflexes and Psychiatry. Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes (Vol. 2.) Translated and edited by Gantt, W. Horsley. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Pietikainen, P. (1999). C.G. Jung and the Psychology of Symbolic Forms. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.Google Scholar
Pietikainen, P. (2007). Neurosis and Modernity. The Age of Nervousness in Sweden. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Pietikainen, P. (2015). Madness: A History. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pietikainen, P., & Clark, D. (2017). The psychology of adjustment in the United States from the late 19th century to World War II. European Yearbook of the History of Psychology, 3, 11–38.Google Scholar
Prince, M. (1906). The Dissociation of a Personality. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.Google Scholar
Rabinbach, A. (1992). The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Radkau, J. (2001). The neurasthenic experience in Imperial Germany. In Gijswijt-Hofstra, M. & Porter, R. (Eds.), Cultures of Neurasthenia from Beard to the First World War (pp. 199–217). Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, C. (1989). The Carl Rogers Reader. Edited by Kirschenbaum, H. & Henderson, V. L.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Sass, H., & Herpertz, S. (1995). Personality disorders: Clinical section. In Berrios, G. E. & Porter, R. (Eds.), A History of Clinical Psychiatry: The Origin and History of Psychiatric Disorders, (pp. 633–644). London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Schneider, K. (1958). Psychopathic Personalities. Translated by Hamilton, M. W.. Springfield, IL: C. C. Thomas. (Original German work published 1923).Google Scholar
Schuster, D. G. (2011). Neurasthenic Nation: America’s Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869–1920. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Shaffer, L. F., & Shoben, E. J. (1956). The Psychology of Adjustment: A Dynamic and Experimental Approach to Personality and Mental Hygiene. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Shamdasani, S. (2003). Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, R. (2013). Between Mind and Nature: A History of Psychology. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
Weitzer, R. (Ed.) (2001). Deviance and Social Control: A Reader. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Werlinder, H. (1978). Psychopathy: A History of the Concepts. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Wetzell, R. F. (2000). Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880–1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Windholz, G. (1990). Pavlov, psychoanalysis, and neuroses. Pavlovian Journal of Biological Science, 25, 48–53.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×