Explaining neuroscientific basis of mental disorder
I've just
tweeted the link to Peter Kinderman's recent post on Mad in America. Peter may overuse the term "distress" from my point of view, as I think people can be mentally disordered without necessarily experiencing it as distress. However, I look forward to the publication of his book. He explains far better than me what I have been going on about all these years with critical psychiatry. To quote from him:-
Some neuroscientists have asserted that all emotional distress can ultimately be explained in terms of the functioning of our neural synapses and their neurotransmitter signallers. But this logic applies to all human behaviour and every human emotion – falling in love, declaring war, solving Fermat’s last theorem. It clearly doesn’t differentiate between distress – explained as a product of chemical ‘imbalances’ – and ‘normal’ emotions.
Why should the way we explain mental illness be any different from our normal emotions? Why should there even be a different neural substrate? Peter seems to think this idea might be catching on. I do hope so.
"Peter may overuse the term "distress" from my point of view, as I think people can be mentally disordered without necessarily experiencing it as distress."
ReplyDeleteAnd people can be distressed without necessarily experiencing it as "out of order".
Your problem Double, is that you think "mentally disordered" is some kind of meaningful phrase.
Interesting to note too, that of the people you label "mentally disordered" that you also label as not experiencing this as "distressing", they are sure to become distressed once YOU, a SUPPORTER OF THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT, COERCE THEM.
Duncan Double, supporter of sending the plods to bust into people's homes and haul them away for forced "treatment".
And you will forever be remembered as a purveyor of coercion and violence.
An opponent of people's basic rights.
I agree with you, being mentally disordered doesn't necessarily mean being in distress. I get distressed a lot of times, and I usually don't think of myself as being completely out of control. This was an interesting article though, and I hope to read more on the topic. http://www.ghalyhwc.com/index.php/services/
ReplyDeleteDr Double, how can people can be mentally disordered without necessarily experiencing it as distress?
ReplyDeleteHow can people be mentally disordered the first place?
How can you prove the existence of mental disorder?
I guess the existence of mental disorder can’t be proved as such, anonymous. It’s a concept. But I think it is a valid concept and of course psychotic people may well feel fine and not distressed.
ReplyDelete