| Description |
1 online resource (xv, 473 pages) illustrations |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Access |
Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL |
| System Details |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
| Processing Action |
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Summary |
"The field with which abnormal psychology deals includes physiological and psychological deviations from normal patterns of behavior. Although the frequency of certain deviations is determined by cultural and economic factors and changes during different years, and although it is difficult to obtain reliable statistics on the appearance of certain abnormal manifestations, * it is significant that, as President Truman stated to Congress, "There is no doubt that at least 2,000,000 persons in the United States are mentally ill and that as many as 10,000,000 will probably need hospitalization during some period of their lifetime." But it is not only the large incidence of mental illness which makes the study of abnormal behavior such an important topic in psychology; the area of emotional disturbances extends deeply into normal life. Normal and abnormal are not clear cut dichotomies but only extremes of a threshold upon which man stands. Abnormal psychology can no longer deal with the institutionalized only. We cannot work with ready-made labels which create intolerance towards the abnormal personality on one hand, and increase the worries of normal man with his emotional disturbances on the other. Through the popularization of psychopathological concepts labels such as "neurotic" and "schizophrenic" have been widely abused, creating the dangerous idea that diagnosis and classification of behavior are that easy. Man, however, is a product of his setting; what is normal for a child may be abnormal for an adult, what is normal for a Pygmy is abnormal for an American, what is normal under the conditions of war is abnormal under the conditions of peace. But we not only have to investigate the threshold of what is abnormal, we have to ask how behavior became abnormal. We have to search for motivations, goals and present conditions which push man over the threshold, and to find means of leading him back to adjustment. And finally, we have to study the circumstances under which this threshold can be modified. Mental Hygiene of living conditions as well as of the total personality goes together with postulates towards what ends we are training the clinical psychologist and the social worker. From this point of view the present study of abnormal psychology deals less with clear-cut clinical pictures but more with the structure and genesis of abnormal behavior, with the dynamics of abnormal behavior"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Subject |
Psychology, Pathological.
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Neuroses.
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Psychiatry. (DNLM)D011570
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Psychophysiology. (DNLM)D011603
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Neuroses. (OCoLC)fst01036527
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Psychology, Pathological. (OCoLC)fst01081609
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Abweichendes Verhalten (DE-588)4000320-6
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Einführung (DE-588)4151278-9
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Psychologie (DE-588)4047704-6
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Psychopathologie (DE-588)4047724-1
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| In: |
PsycBOOKS (EBSCO). EBSCO |
| Other Form: |
Print version: Wolff, Werner, 1904-1957. Threshold of the abnormal. New York, Hermitage House, 1950 (DLC) 50011756 (OCoLC)2541974 |
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