Rage Disorder Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Rage Disorder The study of the relationship between the mind and the brain can be traced back to 1895, when a little known Viennese neuro-psychiatrist named Sigmund Freud wrote a relatively unnoticed piece titled "A Project for a Scientific Psychology". In it, he proposed that the cognitive mechanisms of normal and abnormal mental phenomenon could be explained through an orderly study of brain systems. Throughout contemporary philosophy and psychology, the relationship between mind and brain has been extensively studied without a decisive resolution. One proposed solution has been to adopt the position that the mind is an expression of the activity of the brain and that these two are separable for purposes of analysis and discussion but inseparable in actuality. Thus, mental phenomenons arise from the brain, but mental experience also affects the brain. This is demonstrated by the many examples of environmental influences on brain plasticity. Mental illness can be categorized as reflecting abnorma lities in the brain/mind interaction with the surrounding world. (1) In the following paper, an assessment shall be made of how biology/neurobiology has impacted the study and diagnosis of mental illness. Two general conclusions will be drawn from this presentation. The first of these conclusions is that with time, money, and increased research, there will be an ever-expanding ability to discern biological and material identifiers of mental illness. The second conclusion that shall be drawn is that there will be a continued trend towards "blurring" the border between "normal" and "abnormal" behavior as mental illness is increasingly better understood. Each of these conclusions raises new issues that shall be addressed in the body... ...an beings; and third, they must provide a theory that is able to be modeled and tested in animals. (1) With these three criteria in place, there is a greater possibility for advanced screening as well as improved biomedical understanding of the link between mind and brain, shattering conceptual barriers of what constitutes mental illness. Sources Cited: Andreasen, Nancy C. "Linking Mind and Brain in the study of Mental Illnesses: A Project for a scientific Psychopathology," Science. 14 March 1997. Vol 275, No. 5306 p.1586-1592. Robins, E. and Guze, S.B. American Journal of Psychiatry. 126, 983 (1970). http://pslgroup.com/dg/2c6aa.htm http://www.schizophrenia.com/ami/diagnosis/MorSZ.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=hstat http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/ Feighner, J.P. et al. Archives of General Psychiatry. 26, 57, 1972.