Adjustment Problems
Problems of adjustment vary in degree. At the normal level are nervousness and worry, feelings of inferiority, and defensive behavi. At the abnormal level are the neuroses, psychoses, sexual devians, and antisocial behaviors. Fact and fiction about mental health ge widely. Among the lesser childhood and adolescent disorders of the food refusal, obesity. enuresis. infantile autism, and school phobia.
Anxiety, the main characteristic of the neuroses, has a disrupe and disorganizing effect on the individual. The neurotic suffers in dng even the usual risks of life. Neurotic obsessions are persistent and repetitive intrusions of unwanted, irrational thoughts coming at inappropriate times. Neurotic compulsions show irresistible behavior patterns that mayor may not grow out of obsessive thoughts.
The neurotic may block out certain parts of his life as an escape from anxiety and stress through dissociative reactions; an extreme example is the multiple personality. Through conversion reactions the neurotic transfers an emctional problem into a physical disorder. In contrast to normal depression, which arises from stress and lasts temporarJy, neurotic depression may last for days or weeks. It can clear up with or without treatment, but is likely to recur.
There are two general categories of psychosis: those associated with brain damage and those without evidence of damage. Psychotic disorders show four basic things. First, the disorders are accompanied by disorientation as to time, place, and person, and by inappropriate behavior. Second, the disorders are accompanied by delusions. Third, psychoses commonly involve hallucinations. Founh, exaggerated emotional disturbances are characteristically found among psychotic patients. The most common psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, paranoia, and manic-depressive reactions.
Sexual deviations, more than most disorders, show the line between the normal and abnormal to be blurred. They include both male and female homosexuals, transvestites, and transsexuals. Other deviations include pedophilia, bestiality, fetishism, sadism, masochism, sadomasochism, impotence, and frigidity. Prostitution is considered a form of sexual deviation different from other aberrations. And there are antisocial behaviors which range from child neglect to unsociclized aggression.
Common methods of psychotherapy include psychoanalysis, rational-emotive therapy, and behavior therapy. Abnormal psychology offers the individual a base of comparison for understanding normal adjustments in living and work.
