Abnormal Psychology through the Times

Psychology is a branch of science that's different from psychiatry - even if many people don't often expect that it is. Psychiatry deals with medical disorders that can be corrected with medication and analysis. Psychology is a study that concerns itself with the human thought process. There is no abnormal psychiatry because it's a science that is accepted as dealing with abnormality. Psychology on the other hand is just the study of how people think, how their minds work. They're all kinds of psychological studies  - social psychology studies how people act in groups, for example, and child psychology is the branch of psychology that tries to understand how the mind of a child develops. Psychology that targets the working of an abnormal mind is called psychopathology or abnormal psychology.

It's a common defense you hear from people who disagree when they are criticized as being abnormal - the defense goes to say that there can be no absolutes as far as human beings are concerned. Behavior that appears normal for one could appear abnormal to another. It's kind of a copout to try to claim that there is no behavior on earth that could be provably called abnormal. But they do have a point. Not long ago, people who were gay were considered to be "abnormal" - aberrant even. That certainly changed over time.

But there are carefully framed clinical definitions of what constitutes abnormal psychology today, and clinical psychologists together with social workers give out personality tests, intelligence tests and other psychological evaluations to evaluate how normal or otherwise a person's behavior is. People have for long tried to device definitions of abnormal psychology. At one time, centuries ago, women who were considered to behave abnormally, were frequently hunted by witchhunters working with the cruel witch hunting manual, the Malleus Maleficarum.

In today's world thankfully, the clinical definitions of abnormal psychology only help people deal with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, substance abuse and many other real and serious problems. How do psychological problems get cured? A psychologist typically, doesn't use drugs in his therapy. It is the job of a psychologist to define what he sees on a scale of normalcy. For actual treatment that extends beyond behavioral therapy or psychoanalysis, a psychologist typically refers a patient to a psychiatrist. Both perform complementary roles, and as much as people dislike being called abnormal, a psychologist's opinion really is a valuable one.