Mental health treatment was seen as a medical treatment before the second world war, explaining why psychologists were not allowed to treat patients without supervision. After the second world war, there was an increased need for psychological help (e.g. shellshock patients) which led to a more psychological approach to mental disorders.After the second world war, there was the rise of antipsychiatry (1), treatments requiring scientific evidence (2) and medication being used for mental disorders (3). People tend to believe that mental disorders are rooted in the brain as a result of psychiatry’s origin in medicine. This view was strengthened by the discovery that certain drugs can alleviate the symptoms of mental disorders. Charcot and Freud started to see psychiatric symptoms as expressions of diseases, positing psychological factors as the causes of symptomatology. Neurosis refers to unconscious conflicts which express themselves in symptomology. Rogers introduced humanistic psychology based on the acceptance of patients. In humanistic psychology, a good therapist has unconditional positive regard (1), empathetic understanding (2) and congruence. Congruence refers to the therapist being genuine in his support and understanding. Cognitive behavioural therapy is based on a psychological approach to mental disorders. The medical and psychological view of mental disorders naturalizes mental disorders as they both view mental disorders as a part of nature which can be systematically studied and understood. This got rid of supernatural explanations for mental disorders.Extreme naturalization refers to the idea that mental disorders deviate from the norm and that the norm itself might be flawed rather than the patients. Antipsychiatry states that mental disorders do not exist and only norms for normal exist. However, increasing prevalence of mental disorders might indicate a change in society rather than a change in people. The psychological...

The scientific method is used because it allows for systematicity and accumulation of knowledge (1), it makes use of well-defined methods (2), it provides clarity (3), it is useful for predictions (4) and it makes knowledge revisable (5). However, there are several reasons why psychology might not be a science:Society does not always see psychology as a science.Practitioners tend to rely on clinical intuition rather than scientific research.It is not always believed that the mind can be studied using the scientific method.Scientific claims are often exaggerated and fallible.Dilthey criticized scientific psychology:Psychology should be content-basedThe focus of psychology should be on what the mind comprises rather than on how the brain functions.Psychology should study human experience in its totalityThere should be a holistic approach to the mind rather than a reductionist approach.Psychology should study the mind in context with the personThe mind should not be studied in isolation but in context with the person.Psychology should use understanding The focus should be on understanding the mind rather than explaining the mind.There are three levels of understanding according to Dilthey: Elementary forms of understanding to solve the simple problems of life.Empathy through which an observer can re-experience someone else’s experiences.Hermeneutic level of understanding in which the observed person can be better understood than the person understands himself.Critical psychology refers to a movement in psychology that criticizes mainstream psychology for failing to understand that knowledge does not refer to an outside reality and that scientific knowledge is not cumulative but consists of social constructions. Social constructivism states that knowledge is a social construction. According to social constructivism, it is difficult to say whether knowledge is cumulative, thus theories should not be judged on truth but on...

There is a reciprocal interaction between psychological science and society. Aberrant cognition, affect and behaviour used to be explained by bizarre theories and the treatments were ineffective and inhumane. Each culture has a symptom pool and patients with psychological problems gravitate towards the symptoms that are thought to be a legitimate indication of a mental disorder. Clinical practice is changed by societal changes if these changes influence the symptom pool. It is important to interpret psychological research with care because:Psychology is influenced by society (e.g. more multiple personality disorder diagnoses when it is portrayed more in the media).Psychological research is influenced by socio-political biases.The context in which researchers work is influenced by the socio-political context.Psychological research does not always replicate. Systematic empirical psychology has led to scepticism regarding adventurous claims. One important function of psychology is debunking nonsense. Psychological categories are not static but change because of research and societal influences. The categories are prone to subjective conceptions of what these psychological categories hold. Foucault states that scientific categories order society, making these categories political. Hacking formulates the looping effect of social kinds which states that social kinds can start as arbitrary but acquire causal power in our social system. This occurs for psychological categories because they become part of people’s conceptualization of their own identity (e.g. “I act like this because I have ADHD”). Psychology shapes reality through the label it creates a society adapts to the label, making the label real. Foucault states that society needs outcasts and mental disorders are used for this goal. Science employs psychology to exert power over the population through surveillance (e.g. psychological tests). Diagnosis of mental disorders steers...