Psychopathology Essay

Clinical Psychology Psychopathology is the study of mental disorders that someone might have. Mental disorders include depression, anxiety disorders, and phobias. To diagnose a certain disorder, a psychiatrist would first look into all the details of the patient’s history and his family’s history as well. For Ray, by looking into what he has suffered and into his family’s history, it leads me to conclude that Ray is suffering from depression. Ray is a married 29-year-old father of a 2-year-old child. Before his presentation at work, he started to feel extremely sad. He had a difficulty in moving his body, his appetite had diminished, he had periods of crying through the day, and he felt suicidal as well. What we know about Ray’s history is that he suffered a concussion at the age of 18. He had regularly mood swings at a young age and he was abusing alcohol during his teenage years. His family history indicates that his father and grandmother also had mood swings. At points in his grandmother’s life, she was hospitalized for “unknown reasons,” but the family never told anybody, as they thought that the reason was a “shameful” one. By looking at Ray’s family,

In the case of Ray, the cause of the problem that he might have is that his family sees a person suffering from depression as revolting and shameful. By figuring out the main cause for Ray to refuse treatment, we could start helping Ray to stop denying his depression, and start accepting the fact that he suffers from it. Ray would need to understand that what his family is saying is wrong. That by suffering from depression is not shameful. Once we have removed that from his head, Ray could then start again seeking help for his