Psychopathology

Psychological conditions that are now classified as mental disorders were initially attributed to possessions by evil spirits, demons, and the devil.

A few years earlier, in 1899, the German book Lehrbuch der Psychopathologischen Untersuchungs-Methoden was published by Robert Sommer.

Talking therapy would originate from his ideas on the individual's experiences and the natural human efforts to make sense of the world and life.

Other related fields include psychiatry, neuroscience, criminology, social work, sociology, epidemiology, and statistics.

Descriptive psychopathology involves categorising, defining and understanding symptoms as reported by people and observed through their behaviour which are then assessed according to a social norm.

Explanatory psychopathology looks to find explanations for certain kinds of symptoms according to theoretical models such as psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural therapy or through understanding how they have been constructed by drawing upon Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2016) or Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2013).

In order to be classified for diagnosis, the symptoms cannot represent an expected response to a common stress or loss that is related to an event.

Symptoms vary depending on each individual person and include feeling sad, irritable, hopeless, or losing interest in activities once enjoyed.

Instead of conceptualising psychopathology as consisting of several discrete categories of mental disorders, the p factor is dimensional and influences whether psychiatric symptoms in general are present or absent.

Although researchers initially conceived a three-factor explanation for psychopathology generally, subsequent study provided more evidence for a single factor that is sequentially comorbid, recurrent/chronic, and exists on a continuum of severity and chronicity.

The existence of the p factor may explain why it has been "... challenging to find causes, consequences, biomarkers, and treatments with specificity to individual mental disorders.

A high p factor is associated with many adverse effects, including poor academic performance, impulsivity, criminality, suicidality, reduced foetal growth, lower executive functioning, and a greater number of psychiatric diagnoses.

[16] The term psychopathology may also be used to denote behaviours or experiences which are indicative of mental illness, even if they do not constitute a formal diagnosis.

For example, the presence of hallucinations may be considered as a psychopathological sign, even if there are not enough symptoms present to fulfil the criteria for one of the disorders listed in the DSM or ICD.

In a more general sense, any behaviour or experience which causes impairment, distress or disability, particularly if it is thought to arise from a functional breakdown in either the cognitive or neurocognitive systems in the brain, may be classified as psychopathology.

It remains unclear how strong the distinction between maladaptive traits and mental disorders actually is,[17][18] e.g. neuroticism is often described as the personal level of minor psychiatric symptoms.