Madness

Author(s):  
Joseph N. Straus

The sorts of mental or affective states that are understood as madness (or medicalized as “mental illness”) vary with time and place. As with other culturally stigmatized bodily differences (i.e., disabilities), madness has been understood in three ways. First, madness has been understood in religious terms, as a mark of divine punishment or transcendent vision. Second, there is the medical model, which constitutes madness as “mental illness.” Third, in line with the sociocultural model of disability, madness is seen as a (potentially valuable) human difference rather than a deficit, pathology, or disease. Musical modernism represents madness in its divided consciousness (stratification into conflicting layers) and its hearing of voices (quotation of stylistically incongruous music).

1971 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Horvath

As long as mental illness is regarded as primarily a behavioral disorder, current and foreseeable manpower shortages in psychiatry make it necessary to increase the participation of nonmedical personnel in the treatment process. The controversy between those advocating behavioral treatment and those favoring the medical model cannot be resolved due to the fact that our current knowledge of the biologic roots of mental illness is inadequate. A breakthrough in research in this area could resolve the argument and solve the manpower problem by transferring psychiatric disorders into physiologic disease susceptible to medical treatment. Alternative models for the delivery of mental health services can be developed to allow for different possibilities in the outcome of research. Additional data is needed, especially on the costs and effectiveness of future therapies, before an evaluation of programs can be carried out.


Author(s):  
Temenuga Trifonova

This chapter explores the rhetoric of madness and mental illness informing realist film theories. Hugo Münsterberg, author of the first work of film theory, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study, considered the following several features—reminiscent of the symptomatic language of dissociative identity disorder—essential to cinema: decentralization (the ability to assume alternate points of view), mobility (the ability to invert the past and the present, the real and the virtual), and derealization and disembodiment (characteristic of film reception). Epstein’s revelationist aesthetic and Balázs’s anthropomorphic film theory are both informed by animistic beliefs, translating into the realm of the aesthetic the symptoms of various types of delusional and anxiety disorders characterized by the inability to distinguish the living from the non-living. In Kracauer’s Theory of Film affective states commonly perceived as symptomatic of madness or mental illness—detachment from reality, ennui, melancholy, distraction, and disinterestedness/apathy—are posited as necessary to film’s ‘redemption of physical reality’. This chapter explores these and other formulations, focusing on Kracuer’s Theory of Film.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 386-393
Author(s):  
Danielle R. Madden ◽  
Chun Nok Lam ◽  
Brian Redline ◽  
Eldin Dzubur ◽  
Harmony Rhoades ◽  
...  

Adults with serious mental illness engage in limited physical activity, which contributes to significant health disparities. This study explored the use of both ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and activity trackers in adults with serious mental illness to examine the bidirectional relationship between activity and affect with multilevel modeling. Affective states were assessed up to seven times per day using EMA across 4 days. The participants (n = 20) were equipped with a waist-worn accelerometer to measure moderate to vigorous physical activity. The participants had a mean EMA compliance rate of 88.3%, and over 90% of completed EMAs were matched with 30-min windows of accelerometer wear. The participants who reported more positive affect than others had a higher probability of engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Engaging in more moderate to vigorous physical activity than one’s usual was associated with more negative affect. This study begins to address the effect of momentary mood on physical activity in a population of adults that is typically difficult to reach.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve J. Lewis ◽  
Jeffrey R. Lacasse ◽  
Jennifer Spaulding-Givens

The Mental Illness Beliefs Inventory (MIBI) measures the extent to which an individual subscribes to the medical model of mental illness. This article reports the results of two preliminary validation studies. The first study establishes the initial psychometric properties for the MIBI, based on a sample of 222 students in the helping professions; the second study tests the model established in the first study with an additional 270 students. The MIBI performs well as a composite instrument measuring belief in the medical model of mental illness. This instrument shows promise for examining the extent to which individual beliefs affect mental health practice.


2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra L. Adame ◽  
Roger M. Knudson

The discourse of the medical model of mental illness tends to dominate people’s conceptions of the origins and treatments of psychopathology. This reductionistic discourse defines people’s experiences of psychological distress and recovery in terms of illnesses, chemical imbalances, and broken brains. However, the master narrative does not represent every individual’s lived experience, and alternative narratives of mental health and recovery exist that challenge our traditional understandings of normality and psychopathology. Guided by the method of interpretive interactionism, we examined how psychiatric survivors position themselves in relation to the medical model’s narrative of recovery. In its inception, the psychiatric survivor movement created a counter-narrative of protest in opposition to the medical model’s description and treatment of psychopathology. Since then, the movement has moved beyond the counter-narrative and has constructed an alternative narrative; one that is not defined in opposition to the master narrative but instead participates in an entirely different discourse.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Folole Iaeli Esera

<p>This paper is an analysis of the cultural and traditional factors that I believe are essential considerations in the treatment of Samoan people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness.  Just as important to any diagnosis is the spiritual nature of our culture and traditions, which forms the most part of my people's belief system. A full understanding of these will explain how the traditional beliefs and cultural values of Samoan people have an impact on their perception of mental illness, its causes and cures. Greater emphasis will be placed on 'ma'i -aitu', the Samoan term for most ailments pertaining to the mind or psyche.  The focus will be on defining 'ma'i -aitu' as part of a Samoan world view and likewise a description of a similar type of manifestation in the Papalagi (western) context of a psychiatric disorder and how treatment and management is usually undertaken.  The issues addressed in this paper will serve to highlight the Samoan client's world view from a Samoan perspective of mental illness which then poses the question of how they can be managed holistically and appropriately under the Papalagi medical system. Furthermore, does the traditional belief system of Samoans run deeper than we originally thought and can the replacement thereof by a foreign culture be responsible for the increased mental problems in Samoans living in New Zealand?  This paper emphasises the importance of integrating the western medical model and Samoan health models, for appropriate mental health service delivery to Samoan people.</p>


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