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vpizzini's picture

biology and mental disorders

I completely agree with the idea that mental illnesses are medical diseases and affect individuals by chronic conditions. Even though a genetic predisposition could play a determinant role in the evolution of a particular mental illness,I believe that, in some cases, also the style of life, intrafamilial relationships and culture give a significant contribution to the process of developing that particular mental illness. Some mental disorders, such as paresis, can be recognized as a specific biomedical problem, while other disorders, such as hysteria, need a different explanation. For example, I find very interesting the psychodynamic models, offered by Freud’s followers. In these models, mental disorders are considered manifestations of unconscious psychological conflicts, originating in one’s childhood. Other theorists came up with  the learning models, in which mental disorders result from maladaptive learning and can be corrected with remedial learning. Each of these approaches are constructed on the idea that biomedical factors play an important role in producing some forms of psychopatology; childhood experiences or maladaptive learning contribute as well, but it would probably be a mistake to point to any of these factors by itself as the cause of any mental illness. I believe that mental disorders have biopsychosocial roots; many individuals have a predisposition toward them, but it also exists a trigger that “turns” the predisposition into an actual disorder.

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