This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Welcome to the mental illness mini-carnival! Mental illness, or psychopathology, is a field riddled with controversy and it can be sometimes confusing to wade through all the uncertainty and conflicting data and opinions. In an effort to help make sense of some of it, your faithful psychology and neuroscience bloggers are here to help.
"Illness is like the street you've driven down your whole life. So familiar you've never bothered to look around. We've all experienced illness, either first-hand or via someone we know, but rarely do we stop to wonder what it really is." Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest starts us out with an explanation of what qualifies as a mental disorder.
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At the Neurocritic blog, you are invited to ponder the question of what "abnormal, maladaptive behavior" really means and the relationship of neurobiology to such behavior.
Rift of the Psycasm blog takes an evolutionary approach, and treats us to his musings on the potential relationship between adaptation and psychopathology.
Scicurious deconstructs the term "psychopathology" and offers perhaps another way to consider mental illness at her blog Neurotic Physiology.
And here at The Thoughtful Animal, consider several of the complicated aspects of determining what qualifies as psychopathology using ADHD as a case study.
I will add more links as I get them.
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