LOCI and Mental Illness

[Patcat]

Anyone interested in a discussion of how LOCI treats mental illness?

Patcat

[M]

That's rather a braod topic considering how many mental illnesses are actually identified, not to mention that the study of them is not considered a science because you can't see them.
But hey, if you like, sure. Lets discuss.

[amnesic]

you can't see memory or attention either but that doesn't stop experimental psychologists being able to take behavioural measures of them!

[Metella]

oh, there are lots of comparisons of hormones, chemicals, sections of activity, neural transmitters ..... comparisons of "normal" and "diseased" the seeing may be there if we have the correct tools.


Then again, do we really want to know and then have to deal with all the implications of what we may learn?

[amnesic]

i'd like to add "environment" to that list. neuroscience seems to have an almost exclusive say on the causes of mental illness these days. as goren said in an episode, "tweak the environment one way and you get firefighters and skydivers. tweak it another way and you get psychopaths."

[aquarian1]

Ahh... Metella and amnesic bring about the whole nature vs nurture debate. As someone who graduated with a psych degree, all I can say is it's pretty complicated. You're right, M, that psychology is not a hard science, but not because you can't see it.

For general info purposes:
Hard sciences are things like astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. They have specific and measurable things. They have theories and principles (rules and equations). Psychology is a social science. It is hard to measure someone's behavior and all the causes. So many things are inter-related. Genetics may give someone a predisposition to a behavior, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way. Same with environment. If psychologists could conduct controlled experiments, the science would probably progress much faster. But that would mean doing things like raising babies in isolation, without human contact. Or raising some to only interact with women and some only with men. Or some to get yelled at all the time, and some never get yelled at, etc. You can see where I'm going with this, this would be highly unethical and no one even wants to put another human through these things, so it can't be done. Therefore psychologists are left with observing what already is happening. Sure they can do experiments with smaller impacts like putting groups of people in 2 rooms and telling one "No matter what, don't eat those cookies." and the other group gets no such message. Then see what the effect of the restriction has on the others.

OK - that was WAY to long for my first post here. Sorry. More on topic, I do like the way LOCI approaches mental illness (well, at least better than some other shows). We still get to see what they did as wrong, but we sometimes see a little of why they did it.

[Metella]

Not long for a first post at all. How about that horrible experiment with young monkeys that clung to a wireframe as they were deprived of a mother - poor things. I have grave ethical concerns on animal testing, & also see some of the advances they provide.

[aquarian1]

I agree with that test on the monkeys was horrible. But imagine trying to do that to humans! There's just no way. When I watched that film I wanted to jump through the screen and hold that monkey. So, I think most people would agree that kind of experimentation on humans is just not feasible, and many think like you and I that even doing it to monkeys is bad. This all leads to making it even harder to understand human behavior due to lack of ethical experimental procedures available. And I don't see a way around it.

[Patcat]

Right now I'm extremely disillusioned with any form of testing. I have a part time job grading standardized tests, and I've become convinced these tests are completely bogus. They discredit or discard creativity and imagination and award the blandest and safest. Just terrible.

Of course, I've no real solutions to offer for the problem either (g).

Patcat

[js]

An experiment using humans was conducted back in the 60's before today's guidelines for using humans was in place. It's the Milgrim Experiment. There is an explanation of the study at the link below. Also, the study was published in an article entitled, "Would You Obey a Hitler."

js

home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html

[amnesic]

the problem with modern psychology is its reaction to criticisms that it is not a "proper" science. i did my postdoc in a department that took it to the extreme: it taught neuroscience, anatomy and endocrinology as part of its undergraduate psychology degree while skimping on basic social, cognitive and developmental psychology. students were taught in detail about how this neurochemical or structural defect could cause (yes, they said causation rather than correlation) various mental illnesses while not once referring to non-biological causes. luckily i now work in a department where the staff see themeselves as psychologists rather than failed medics. so, in a nut shell, we deserve these kinds of comments because we bring it on ourselves and perpetutate it by teaching it to the students

[Metella]

js - that was a fascinating article - thanks for sharing. A theme in that article that amnesic also brings up is the lack of understanding of the "big picture" when things are viewed in isolation - they become distorted.

[jaquetta]

Ah, but now we have Tom Cruise informing us that chemical imbalances and mental illness don't exist! After all, he knows the history of psychiatry. And who better to get this kind of information from?

Gah.

[trisha]

Lol!

I used to think he was just another harmless, shiny Hollywood bobble, but he's really getting on my nerves lately, especially with his bashing psychology. I think Lewis Black said it best on The Daily Show when he said, "If there's no such thing as chemical imbalances, how do you explain what's happening to you right now?!"

snicker ;D

[Patcat]

Unfortunately, Mr. Cruise does have a legitimate point when it comes to his concern over the overmedicating of children.

Also unfortunately, his argument that mental illnesses can be overcome without medication will likely keep some people from taking their needed medications.

I don't doubt that Mr. Cruise has overcome a lot, but it strikes me that people who manage to come from tough backgrounds either are extremely sympathetic to those in similar situations or have an attitude of "I did it-why can't you?" And I think Mr. Cruise is in the latter category.

Patcat