Abnormal Psychology

What Is Abnormal Psychology?

Abnormal psychology, as its name suggests, is the study of minds and behaviors that deviate from the norm. It is a broad field that includes the study of trauma patients, personality disorders, brain injuries, mental disabilities, and a wide range of other issues. Generally, abnormal psychology is seen as a theoretical, rather than applied, field of psychological research, but it has numerous applications in the real world. Obviously, clinical psychologists and therapists need to have a firm knowledge of abnormal psychology – otherwise, how would they diagnose and treat psychological disorders? The study of abnormal minds also has considerable theoretical value, since significant insight into how the mind works can be gained by studying the mind when it is not working properly. For example, behavioral studies of patients with damage to a particular part of the brain often help to shed light on what that part of the brain does. If, for example, patients with damaged occipital lobes consistently have trouble with vision, then psychologists can infer that the occipital lobe is somehow involved with that sense. In this way, abnormal psychology bridges the gap not only between theoretical and applied psychology, but also sometimes between psychology and neuroscience.

Who Should Study Abnormal Psychology?

Every psychologist, regardless of their specific field, needs a knowledge of abnormal psychology. Typically, psychologists will take at least one course in abnormal psych at the undergraduate level, and several at the graduate or medical level. Specializing in abnormal psychology beyond this foundational level, however, is also an option for people who are interested in psychology and want to work with people who are suffering from psychological illnesses or abnormalities. Thus, it is a good option for people who want to go into clinical psychology, counseling, school psychology, or psychotherapy. In any of these fields, it will be necessary to have a strong knowledge of abnormal psychology.

It is also an excellent option for aspiring research psychologists. Many of the most interesting and influential experiments in psychological history have been done by drawing comparisons between patients with a given psychological condition and people who do not suffer from that condition. Research in abnormal psychology also has the benefit of being immediately applicable in the real world. If you want to use your knowledge of psychology to help those in need but do not feel that working hands-on with patients is right for you, you may want to consider doing research in abnormal psychology.

The History of Abnormal Psychology

In many ways, psychology as an academic discipline was born out of abnormal psychology. This is because the earliest psychologists – such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung – were psychiatrists whose insights about the human psyche came out of their work with patients. Freud’s patients suffered from a wide range of ailments, and it was by studying these patients, their symptoms, and the methods that seemed to help cure them that Freud developed his many theories.

C.W. Beers, an American psychologist, became famous when he himself suffered a mental breakdown. He eventually recovered and went on to publish books advocating a new approach to the treatment of the mentally ill. His attitude – that mental disorders should be thought of as diseases just like any other, rather than as divine punishments or supernatural occurrences – remains the bedrock of clinical and abnormal psychology today. Beers’s work and the birth of modern psychology helped to usher in a new era of treatment for the mentally ill. Where they were once simply labeled as “crazy” and locked up in asylums or left on the streets, mentally ill people are now recognized simply as human beings suffering from diseases. Hospitals, doctors, and treatments are available for the mentally ill, and effective treatments have been developed for a wide range of psychological disorders.