Abnormal Psychology: General Texts

ProQuest Video: 1:25:31
Through intimate stories of patients, families, and medical providers, BEDLAM immerses us in America’s national crisis surrounding care of the severely mentally ill. Filmed over five years, it brings us inside one of the nation’s busiest psychiatric emergency rooms, into jails where psychiatric patients are warehoused, and to the homes – and homeless encampments – of mentally ill members of our communities. The story is told in part by director Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD, a psychiatrist, filmmaker, and brother of a person with schizophrenia.

Alexander Street Videos: 56:00
Traditional Western European therapy operates from hidden assumptions: (a) disorders reside in individuals, (b) disorders are departures from conventional (statistical) norms, (c) psychological principles derived from the dominant group are universally applicable, and (d) therapy consists of a series of strategies and techniques detached from the cultural context. When imposed upon clients of color, however, they potentially produce therapeutic harm. Rather than free and liberate, they may oppress and silence culturally diverse clients. MCT scholars and practitioners operate from different assumptions: (a) mental disorders are often sociopolitical constructions, (b) all treatments and behaviors cannot be isolated from their cultural contexts, (c) the individual is not necessarily the psychosocial unit of operation, and (d) cultural universality must be balanced with cultural specificity. When seen from this perspective, MCT represents true “healing” and liberation.

Alexander Street Videos: 5:00
This training video lists the different warning signs to look out for that could signal that someone is suffering from psychological illness, the appropriate questions that can be asked of that person and how to go about asking those questions. By watching this mental health and wellbeing video, managers will learn: The 20 possible indicators of a mental illness; What to ask, how to ask and when to ask; Ways in which you can best support an individual; Privacy legislation requirements.

ProQuest: 4:28
Expressions like "feeling down" or "feeling low" are more literal than we think, says Lost Connections author Johann Hari. A 30-year field study of wild African baboons by the incredible Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky has shown that there is a remarkable relationship between depression, anxiety, and social hierarchies. Male baboons—who live in a very strict pecking order—suffer the most psychological stress when their social status is insecure, or when they are on the bottom rung, looking up at the luxuries of others. Does it sound familiar yet? "If you live in the United States... we’re at the greatest levels of inequality since the 1920s," says Hari. "There’s a few people at the very top, there’s a kind of precarious middle, and there’s a huge and swelling bottom." It's no coincidence that mental health gets poorer as the wealth gap continues to widen: depression and anxiety are socioeconomic diseases. The silver lining is that this relationship has been discovered. Could an economic revolution end the depression epidemic? And, most curiously, what can we learn from the Amish on this front? Johann Hari is the author of Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions.

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.

(American Psychological Association) More than 25,000 authoritative entries across 90 subfields of psychology.

(MedlinePlus) Mental disorders (or mental illnesses) are conditions that affect your thinking, feeling, mood, and behavior. They may be occasional or long-lasting (chronic). They can affect your ability to relate to others and function each day.

(MedlinePlus) MedlinePlus is an online health information resource for patients and their families and friends. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

(NHS) Find information and support for your mental health.

(Johns Hopkins Medicine) The following are the latest statistics available from the National Institute of Mental Health Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health

(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) Many adolescents experience positive mental health, but an estimated 49.5 percent of adolescents has had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.

(NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health) The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) offers authoritative information about mental disorders, a range of related topics, and the latest mental health research.

(National Institute of Mental Health) Mental illnesses are common in the United States. It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (57.8 million in 2021). Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in degree of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe.

(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

(American Psychiatric Association) Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses can be associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.