Untitled Quiz

Week 1

• Mental health is not the absence of disease, but rather attention to mental health
• Psy-disciplines (psychiatry and psychology) have grown in size and scope over 150 years
• Psy-complex refers to tools and knowledge from disciplines like conferences, journals, associations, and institutions
• Critical theorists see psy-complex as enforcing social norms, not just healing
• The course examines the evolution of mental health/illness concepts
• Mental health/illness relates to broader social structures
• Before the 18th century, no concept of mental illness; instead, it was considered madness
• Behaviours were explained by head injuries, illness, or divine intervention
• The range of responses varied from compassion to mistreatment
• There wasn't a strong link between medicine and mental health

Week 2

• Old British law differed between pauper lunatics and vagrants
• Private madhouses emerged as a new form of care
• The 1774 act required inspection and licensing for madhouses
• Doctors were put into charge of madhouses
• The rise of enlightenment and modernity brought emphasis on reason and philosophy
• New political philosophies emphasized individualism and liberalism
• Scientific optimism increased, and churches lost power
• Moral treatment arose with a shift from confinement to gentler care and kindness

Week 3

• Psychiatry's scope expanded to include behaviours associated with mental illness
• Freud challenged the idea of mental illness as solely a physical disorder
• He focused on the unconscious mind, unconscious processes, and childhood experiences
• Psychoanalysis presented a theory in which mental illness is a result of unconscious conflicts

Week 4

• The 21st century saw an emphasis on positive psychology
• A cognitive shift brought increased interest in happiness and the science of happiness
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Positive Psychology emerged
• Early 20th-century behaviorism looked at observable behaviour rather than introspection

Week 5

• The Global Mental Health (GMH) movement aimed to address mental health as a global issue
• Mental health is often neglected in low-income countries
• The movement emphasized mental health literacy, destigmatization, and access to care

Week 6

• There are many different perspectives on mental illness and mental health
• There are universalist and relativist perspectives on mental illness. Whether the same things cause mental illness in all cultures is questioned
• Universalist perspective: Mental illness is largely biological, regardless of culture
• Relativistic perspective: Mental illness differs based on culture

Week 7

• Neoliberalism transformed mental health into a commodity
• The shifting of mental health care to a free market, emphasized individual responsibility/wellness, and encouraged the use of pharmaceuticals
• These developments are viewed as pushing personal responsibility and control over broader social factors that contribute to health issues
• The emphasis is to improve mental health through individual choices and consumerism, rather than through structural change. This places the burden on the individual rather than on the larger system.

Week 8

• Totalitarianism emerged as a threat to individual freedom
• Soviet contexts exemplified the potential for political manipulation of mental health services
• The Cold War became a global battle of ideas, including the scientific method, and the role of psychiatrists
• Psychiatrists were abused under totalitarian regimes for political reasons

Week 9

• Psychiatry during the war on terror was seen as an important tool to understand, and possibly justify, the behaviors of ‘terrorists' among different communities
• Methodological problems existed in determining if people are ‘mentally ill'
• There's a trend of using mental illness to explain problematic situations

Week 10

• The idea of "the other" and "difference" plays into understandings of the various roles played in cultures
• There appears to be a trend toward the increasing emphasis of the individual and individualism as a cure or solution
• The development of the idea that 'western' ideas and definitions of mental illness were somehow 'superior' to 'eastern' or 'native' ideas and definitions

Week 11

• Institutions like asylums were established under the guise of progress, but ended up creating social control mechanisms and having harmful effects on individuals.
• The rise of “total institutions” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as places of ‘moral treatment’ which led to greater control and restrictions of the institution
• Total institutions have a set of expectations of individuals that they have to follow to be deemed normal

Week 12

• Inhumane practices, including deinstitutionalization, lead to homelessness or incarceration for individuals with mental illnesses
• A tension existed between societal needs for care and individualized treatment, which contributed to the deconstruction of hospitals
• Deinstitutionalization left many with inadequate community support systems, leading to increased rates of homelessness and violence

Week 13

• Many researchers criticize how colonialism influenced the development and application of psychiatry across different communities
• The way 'normal' behaviour was defined was inherently connected to colonial power
• The application of various mental health frameworks, including labelling, and diagnosing, was done with respect to certain cultural values (which are always imposed by the colonizer)
• Mental illness was used as a tool to justify or excuse colonial interventions, or to pathologize behaviours that did not conform to colonial norms

Week 14

• The modern 'suicide' crisis is viewed as individualising the problem
• The concept of "psychological distress" has become increasingly popular, yet more difficult to diagnose and manage
• There is an increase in the amount of mental illnesses being seen as individual problems; no longer is the social or structural contexts of problems of mental health being addressed
• Psychologizing is a means of controlling behaviours by framing problematic behaviours as 'symptoms' of an imbalance within the individual, relieving the need to address the social or environmental factors

Week 15

• There is a concern that diagnosing and treating behaviours is becoming so broad that it doesn't require a deep understanding of the people
• There's both a benefit and harm to the increasing popularity of labels for mental health. The benefit is the potential for individuals to take the initiative to address concerns and seek help. The harm is that important and meaningful elements of the situation are ignored or passed over because there are new labels to rely upon

Week 16

• The topics of oppression and social injustice are woven throughout the study of global mental health.
• The concept of care for mentally ill people is tied up with the ability to control them, rather than the true idea of providing care that will benefit the person
• The idea that the most appropriate way to treat is to assimilate into the dominant culture or create a label
• This often creates a situation where individuals who have mental health problems or those who don't fit neatly into existing cultural norms are made to feel bad or abnormal in some way