History of Clinical Psychology PDF

History of Clinical Psychology By khushnood fatima  Significance of Clinical Psychology: When seeing a new client, whether for assessment, therapy, or consultation clients are asked about the history of their presenting problem as well as their general psychological...

History of Clinical Psychology By khushnood fatima  Significance of Clinical Psychology: When seeing a new client, whether for assessment, therapy, or consultation clients are asked about the history of their presenting problem as well as their general psychological and social development. For a thorough understanding of their clients, psychologists need to know how the clients got to where they are today. As clinical psychologists understand their clients by examining the development, growth, and maturation of their lives, students can understand the discipline by exploring its development, growth, and maturation.  Ancient Roots of Clinical Psychology Lightner Witmer founded the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, and that is the year most scholars recognize as the birth of clinical psychology. Clinical psychology is a discipline involved in studying and treating mental disorder, it is worth noting that awareness of mental illness, as distinct from physical illness, can be dated as far back as 2100 B.C. to the ancient Babylonians. Typically, mental illness was viewed from a religious perspective, and treatments such as prayer, wearing of amulets, or religious rituals were used.  Ancient Roots of Clinical Psychology (Cont.) Western cultures traditionally trace the roots of medicine and philosophy to the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, a well-known Greek physician, proposed that psychopathology resulted from imbalances in one or more of the four bodily humors i.e. ❖ Blood ❖ Black bile ❖ Yellow bile ❖ Phlegm.  Ancient Roots of Clinical Psychology (Cont.) Other than Greek philosophers, another concept on mental illness was proposed by Chinese philosophers known as Yin and Yang. In Europe, mental illness , like most everything, was viewed through a religious lens. Psychopathology was understood as the product of demonic possession or other supernatural forces. It was believed that religious rituals were the treatment of choice. In the period of renaissance, it was viewed as the reemergence of a scientific and more humanistic approach to people with mental disorders. Paracelsus and Johann Weyer, rejected spiritual causes of psychological and emotional difficulties. They argued that human behavior could be understood as a function of biological processes.  Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: In the eighteenth and particularly the nineteenth centuries important social and scientific developments set the stage for the birth of clinical psychology. Four areas that laid the foundation for clinical psychology were 1- Improved understanding of mental disorders 2- Measurement of individual differences 3- The emergence of scientific psychiatry 4- The concept of hysteria and the ascendance of psychological determinism.  1- Understanding the Mental Disorders: The gradual shift away from a religious and toward a medical model of mental illness took a few hundred years to complete. By the eighteenth century, mental illness, or “madness,” was generally accepted as falling under the purview of the medical profession. With the acceptance of the medical model came the development of psychiatry as a specialty branch of medicine. The early pioneers of psychiatry included Benjamin Rush in the United States, Philipe Pinel in France and Francis Willis (1718–1807) in England. At that time, the mentally ill were housed in asylums, where they were often chained or otherwise restrained. Treatment usually consisted of some method of adjusting bodily fluids, blood letting by leeches or other means, and vomits.  Understanding the Mental Disorders (Cont.) The generally accepted view was that most forms of mental illness were Moral treatment was an caused by an inflammation of the brain due, presumably, to an excess of approach to mental blood in that area. Depression or melancholy, unlike other forms of disorder based on psychopathology, was thought to result from a lack of blood to the brain. humane psychosocial ca re or moral discipline that In the late eighteenth century, the shift in treatment philosophy has come emerged in the 18th to be known as the moral treatment movement. This movement was century and came to the initiated, nearly simultaneously, by Phillipe Pinel in France and William fore for much of the 19th Tuke in England. century, deriving partly He removed the chains from most patients, added other foods to the from psychiatry or psych patients’ diets, prescribed work therapy, and prohibited brutality by his ology and partly staff. from religious or moral concerns.  Understanding the Mental Disorders (Cont.) The moral treatment movement was relatively short-lived By the mid nineteenth century, numerous institutions in the United States were employing moral treatment. However, within twenty years, most institutions had abandoned the tenets of moral treatment and had evolved into custodial institutions for housing the chronically mentally ill. The moral treatment anticipated a shift from a purely medical to psychological treatment. In addition, it facilitated the development of institutions devoted to the treatment of the mentally ill.  2- Measurement of individual differences One of the important figures in the early history of psychological testing was Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911). He was one of the first to advocate for, and practice, a scientific approach to the measurement of individual differences. Galton began collecting an assortment of data on men from varying social classes, including aristocrats, businessmen, and university personnel. Since his studies suggested that brighter parents had brighter children, he argued that a better race of humans could be created if more intelligent and successful people were encouraged to mate.  2- Measurement of individual differences (Cont.) Galton established a laboratory at the South Kensington museum in 1885 and for the next six years measured various characteristics of over 9,000 people. One of the most important people inspired by Galton was James McKeen Cattell. He established a psychology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied tasks similar to those being used by Galton. In 1890, Cattell was the first to use the term “mental test.” He laid down some of the important principles of psychological testing.  3- Emergence of Scientific Psychiatry During the nineteenth century, scientific psychiatry emerged as a legitimate discipline. The nineteenth century saw the initial identification, naming, and detailed description of several major psychiatric conditions. The most significant nineteenth-century contributor to the development of modern psychiatry was Emil Kraepelin (1855–1926), who published the first edition of his textbook on psychiatry in 1883. The emergence of scientific psychiatry helped set the stage of clinical psychology in a variety of ways.  4- Hysteria and the ascendance of psychological determinism. Hysteria referred to a condition in which patients presented with vague or unusual medical complaints, many of which appeared to be neurological, for which no physical basis could be identified. The typical patient was an intelligent and well-educated yet politically powerless young woman whose allotted role in society was a rigidly predetermined ritual of marriage, child-bearing, domestic duties, and household management. The symptoms of hysteria include those involving passivity, dependency, and emotionality. French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot (1825–1893), was fascinated by the phenomena of hysteria. Charcot believed that one could not study hysteria without hypnosis since the two phenomena were so closely related. 4- Hysteria and the Ascendance of Psychological Determinism (cont.) It is important to note that the work of Charcot, Janet, and Joseph Breuer had a significant impact on Freud’s thinking about psychopathology. His impact upon the field of clinical psychology was significant. Freud opened the door to nonbiological (and nonspiritual) thinking about mental disorders. His major work was the dominant approaches to psychotherapy for most of the twentieth century.  The Birth of a Discipline (1890-1910): In the 1890s psychology was a young but rapidly growing science. The first psychology laboratories had been established in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in Germany. William James established at Harvard University in the United States. G. Stanley Hall established the second U.S. laboratory in 1883. James McKeen Cattell opened the third in 1888. Lightner Witmer (1867–1956) and Alfred Binet (1857–1911) were two of those pioneers in the birth of the discipline  The Birth of a Discipline (1890-1910): In 1896, Witmer established the world’s first psychological clinic. The clinic worked primarily with children who were having difficulties in school. He shared his vision of the psychological clinic as a place where public service, research, and instruction of students could be carried out at the same time. Witmer’s contributions to clinical psychology were substantial. He was the first to formally propose a new helping profession, distinct from medicine and education, to be called clinical psychology. He established the field’s first journal, the Psychological Clinic, and was its first editor. He established the first training program in clinical psychology and provided a framework for what clinical training should look like.  The Birth of a Discipline (1890-1910) Cont. Binet’s main contribution was triggered by an interest in applying psychology to helping children in the educational settings. In 1904, the Minister of Public Instruction in Paris appointed a commission to study how to best serve the needs of impaired children in the educational system. Binet-Simon scale, composed of 30 items arranged in order of difficulty. They also developed a classification system for children based upon their performance on the scale. Binet had created the first, albeit crude, norm-referenced test of intelligence which was a key factor in initiating a boom in psychological testing. Another important development in this time period was the creation of the first professional organization for psychologists in the United States. The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892 by G. Stanley Hall and six other “rugged pioneers.”