Consideration of Several Psychic Disorders - Essay Example

 Consideration of Several Psychic Disorders Psychic disorders constitute a significant part of theoretical and practical medicine, and the progress in this sphere is vital both for helping the patients and their relatives and friends in their overcoming the difficulties and for the scientists who advance in their understanding of the psychic mechanisms of a human mind. This paper considers several psychic disorders which have been and still are one of the most popular issues of psychological and psychiatric branches of medicine. Consideration of Several Psychic Disorders Psychopathy And Sadism. These two words are familiar practically to everybody, but due to this fact their use is often incorrect and inappropriate. Even though these two concepts have many common features in practice, they are still different. First, there are differences between sadism and psychopathy on biological level. According to the scientific researches, the sadists feel excited and extremely pleased realizing that their victims suffer and feel pain, and certain areas of the brain become activated to a greater extent. In this regard, the perception of the victim’s pain by the sadist him/herself is also important, that is, the stronger the pain is, as per the sadist’s feeling, the stronger the brain areas responsible for strong emotions and own emotional condition activate. (Szalavitz, 2012a). Second, the differences between the two mentioned concepts are observed on behavioral level. The sadists are sensible to the victim’s pain and they enjoy torturing and humiliating the others, and their excitement is often too strong. Sadism can also be traced in their sexual behavior, that is, they are sexually satisfied when hurting the others. The psychopaths, on the contrary, have practically no consideration of the emotions of the others, they are indifferent and non-emphatic to the others, that is, they do not feel the emotions as strong as the sadists do. (Szalavitz, 2012a). Mass Psychogenic Illnesses. The conditions called mass psychogenic illnesses are rather old as they are mentioned back in the Middle Ages. This is the condition when something triggers transfer of certain symptoms from a person to a wider group of people in response to a stress as a result of, for instance, a sudden report about a striking event. In this condition, the symptoms are real, but they have no organic reason and are caused psychically or psychologically. The mechanism of transfer of the symptoms from one person to another is still not known, but it exists and acts rather effectively: in 1995, 5500 persons in Tokyo asked for medical help after the terrorists’ gas attack on the city metropolitan, but only 30 per cent of people were really subjected to the poisonous gas action. (Szalavitz, 2012b). There are several factors that precipitate the mass psychogenic disorders. First, the information about the mass disorder may come from untrusted sources or may be a complete fake. In this regard, the scope and suddenness of the event plays a significant role, and even if it might have not taken place in reality, it may be perceived as a real one, and people try to inform as many people as possible to make them take necessary measures. Second, people, especially, in relatively big groups, are rather easily suggestible, and seeing anyone having certain symptoms causes feeling the same with the other person. (Szalavitz, 2012b). The cultural aspect is also important when talking about the mentioned disorder. In the Middle Ages, when religion was a driving force of the society, the church related all those having real symptoms of real diseases (spontaneous and uncontrolled movements, for example) as being heretics and got rid of such people in a known way instead of trying to at least understand the reasons of such behavior. (Szalavitz, 2012b). Hallucinations. Hallucination is the sense when a person’s mind feels something that is not present or is not happening in a real life situation. Such feelings as, for example, seeing a non-existent object, hearing sounds that are not heard by other people or smelling something that is not there are classified as hallucinations. It is believed that mostly psychically ill persons are subjected to the risk of having hallucinations, but mentally healthy people may quite experience the same under special circumstances. When talking about the factors that cause hallucinations, it is possible to distinguish between environmental and biological ones. Environmental factors include substance abuse and behavior that lead to hallucinations emergence. Some substances, such as drugs, alcohol and substances containing in, for example, flora and fauna species, directly lead to hallucinations due to hallucinogenic chemicals contained in them. Medication may also lead to hallucinations emergence as certain medicines have side effects that cause hallucinations. Biological factors include hereditary predisposition to hallucinations and to psychic disorders related to hallucinations, such as schizophrenia. (Healthline, 2015). Mentally healthy people may also experience hallucinations. This happens when there is a significant lack of sleep or when physical exhaust is very severe. Moreover, some medicines prescribed as a cure for different illnesses and disorders may also cause hallucinations emergence. (Healthilne, 2015). Bonnet hallucinations constitute a subtype of hallucinations that emerge with healthy people, but they are, as a rule, widely spread among elderly people. These hallucinations occur in the sense which is deteriorated, that is, if the sight of a person is bad or absent at all, he or she may see some objects. The difference between such hallucinations and those ones of schizophrenia is that Bonnet hallucinations usually relate to the objects that are quite realistic and may exist in real life, and hallucinations of schizophrenic nature are unrealistic. (RNIB, 2015). Psychopathy. As it has been already partially mentioned above, psychopathy is a disorder characterized by lack of emotional feeling, empathy combined with a complete indifference towards the other people. The psychopaths are not concerned about the others, their feelings and their rights, therefore, the actions of a psychopath may harm another person, but the results of such actions are not important for a psychopath. Lies constitute another feature of a psychopath, and the lies may be told the same way the other words are told. Psychopaths feel no shame for telling lies. It is possible to say that the psychopaths are violent, but this is, similarly, a result of their aggressive and antisocial behavior. (Hirstein, 2013). The scientific point of view on the beginning of psychopathy is that it happens in childhood, and genetic predisposition may interact with the peculiarities of upbringing to enforce psychopathy emergence. (Szalavitz, 2012a). It is possible to suggest that modern way of life, that is, concentration of most people on themselves and no care about the others, also foster psychopathic traits existence. Conclusion The present paper has covered several important psychic disorders which still demand deeper investigation but which already can be cured rather successfully. If, for example, psychopathy has become more or less understandable for the scientists, such phenomena as hallucinations and mass psychogenic illnesses still remain fields for further scientific research. References Healthline. (2015). What Causes Hallucinations? 19 Possible Conditions. http://www.healthline.com/symptom/hallucinations Hirstein, W. (2013). What Is a Psychopath? https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindmelding/201301/what-is-psychopath-0 RNIB. (2015). Charles Bonnet Syndrome. http://www.rnib.org.uk/eye-health-eye-conditions-z-eye-conditions/charles-bonnet-syndrome Szalavitz, M. (2012a). Understanding Psychopathic and Sadistic Minds. http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/14/understanding-the-psychopathic-mind/ Szalavitz, M. (2012b). Mysterious Tics in Teen Girls: What Is Mass Psychogenic Illness? http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/31/mysterious-twitching-outbreak-in-n-y-teen-girls-what-is-mass-psychogenic-illness/ Read More