Delusion is a symptom of a number of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorder. German psychiatrist Jasper (1965) defined three criteria for diagnosing delusion: implausibility of believe, imperviousness to counterarguments, and believe in the delusion with certainty. There are several common themes of delusion that are reported. For example, persecutory delusion, where one believes someone has the intention to cause them harm, and delusion of control, where one believes that his/her behaviour is controlled by an external force. Studies have found a number of biological explanations, such as genetics, for the causes of delusional thoughts. This paper will focus on the genetics and neural factors affecting delusion as well as specific types of delusions such as delusion of reference.
Lesions in the brain have allowed neurologist to identify the causes of delusion. A study (Devinsky, 2009) has shown that out of 69 patients with reduplicative paramnesia (a delusional believe that a location is incorrectly merged or relocated) who have brain damage, 36 had damaged their right brain compared to 5 who have damaged their left brain. Similar result has been found in people with Capgras delusion (a believe that an acquaintance has been replaced by an imposter) where 8 out of 26 patients have exclusively damaged their right brain compared to 2 for the left brain. Patients with other types of delusion have shown similar result. Furthermore, in the above experiments by Devinsky (2009) have found that almost all the subjects had frontal lobe lesion with the majority being either damage to the bifrontal or right frontal lobe. Frontal lobe damage can cause delusional thoughts such as imperviousness to counterarguments because ...
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... been conducted to further enhance our understanding of the various areas of the brain responsible for delusion. Delusion of reference has been linked to over-activity in the cortical midline structures (CMS) and the subcortical regions. The delusion of control on the other hand is caused by the over-activity of the parietal lobe which is in turn is caused by a lack of inhibitory signals from the frontal cortex in response to a voluntary movement. Genetics have also been found to significantly influence the likelihood of a person acquiring delusional symptoms. These studies show that like most other psychological phenomenon, delusion does not have a clear biological basis. Instead, it is influenced by a number of factors such as genetics and environmental causes (e.g. brain damage) and different types of delusion may be influenced by very different neural processes.
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
How common is delusional parasitosis? Though it is considered a rare disorder, it is considered by many psychiatrists to be underestimated due to the nature of the symptoms and by the patients seeing a variety of doctors, dermatologists, veterinarians, pest control specialists, entomologists and not necessarily psychiatric (Driscoll, 1993)(Szepietowski, 2007)(Bak, Tumu, Hui, Kay, Burnett, et al., 2008)(Hinkle, 2011). There is a large unknown figure, and by looking at the few cases reports and searching through Internet forums can merely give a vague idea of the true frequency (Freudenmann & Lepping, 2009). Because delusional parasitosis is not at all well known to non-specialists, under those circumstances the condition often goes undiagnosed, or may be incorrectly diagnosed.
False memory afflict everyone. People's memories are vulnerable to outside influence and may not be reliable. However, the exact reason why certain individuals tend to create false memories is unknown. Memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. The storage stage entails that we maintain this information over periods of time. Retrieval is the calling back of this stored information. Malfunctions in one of these stages leads to memory disorder as well as issues such as false memories (Loftus, 2007). False memories are made when true memories are combined with details suggested by others. During the process individuals tend to forget the source of information. Most people experience false memories. However, the precise mechanisms by which such false memories are constructed await further research. It is also unknown exactly what types of individuals are particularly susceptible to these forms of suggestions and which are resistant (Loftus,2007). It has been found that tendency to produce false memories may be a task-specific characteristic of individuals meaning it is most likely caused by a certain characteristic a group of people share.. These false memories are created on the neural networks of the temporal
The article is about false memory. The researchers are trying to find out the effect of planting positive false memory in an individual. The authors of the article are; Cara Laney from University of Leicester, Erin K. Morris from University of California, Irvine, Daniel M. Bernstein from Kwantlen University College and University of Washington, Briana M. Wakefield from University of Washington, Elizabeth F. Lotus from University of California, Irvine.
These results support previous findings on two levels. First, they support the notion that there is a continuity of function between normality and psychosis, with `normal’ individuals (both non-religious and religious) being at one end of the continuum, the deluded individuals at the other extreme, and members of NRMs at the intersection. Indeed, even this classification is over-simplified, as is illustrated by the overlapping range of scores between the four groups. Second, it confirms the multidimensionality of delusional beliefs, since the NRMs and the deluded groups could be differentiated by their scores on the Distress and Preoccupation dimensions, but not on the Conviction dimension (McKenna and Orbach, 1999).
Homelessness poses a serious threat in all countries as people are exposed in an unsafe environment and try to live on change. “Do you have any spare change?” No I don’t have spare change, get a job you animal. We see people all over the streets holding signs and bringing their children to ask for change but during that whole time they could be doing something productive, like getting a job. Homelessness is a problem everywhere and its worse in other countries but here in America we have it rough. We have the means to fix homelessness with giving jobs to them in the fields of science and energy.
What is true in the eyes of one, can be seen as a delusion in another.
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
Internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression as well as personality disorders can occur when change does not accurately follow the developmental timeline (Beck, 1976). Over-distortion and one-sided patterns of speculation cause maladaptive development. These negative patterns of the cognitive system are; arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, magnification and minification, personalization, and dichotomous thinking (Wenzel, et al., 2006). Arbitrary inference is drawing conclusions without supporting evidence or proof. Selective abstraction is conceptualizing a circumstance based on a single detail of an event while disregarding other information. Overgeneralization is applying extreme beliefs, which are
For many years, psychologists have been interested in the Theory of Mind (ToM) and its effects on non-human animals and also humans. Theory of Mind is referred to ‘the ability to attribute mental states – beliefs, knowledge, intentions, desires’ and so on. (Hewson et al, 2015) The Theory of Mind has been researched widely from many different psychologists, although ones mentioned in this essay are solely related to non-human animals. This essay will be describing research studies and explain how they have helped psychologists understand ToM.
The biological approach emphasizes physical and biological bases of behaviour. It looks at how brain functions influence different behaviours and personality. The study of nervous system has played a major role in the development of biological approach to psychology. On the other hand, the psychoanalytic approach explains personality, motivation and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and conflicts. This essay attempts to explain biological and psychoanalytic approaches to psychology with focus on their core assumptions, key features, similarities and differences.
Delusional Disorders: Paranoid - Projection, Erotomania - Projection Grandeur - Reaction formation, Omnipotence, Somatic - Regression
“The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
Cite: Dr. Eric Kendel in States of Mind, Columbia professor and director of Columbia's Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.