Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health: The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Psychological Health

Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 14
A Note on Conventions......Page 16
Introduction......Page 18
Part I. Normality and Mental Health......Page 23
1. Questioning the Standard of Normality: Steps to a More Effective Understanding of Mental Health......Page 25
FROM THE “BANALITY OF EVIL” TO THE “EVIL OF BANALITY”......Page 28
THE DISPOSITIONAL PATHOLOGY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL NORMALITY......Page 33
PSYCHOLOGICAL NORMALITY IS NOT MENTAL HEALTH......Page 35
POSITIVE ILLUSION AND RESISTANCE TO THE PATHOLOGY OF NORMALITY......Page 38
WHERE WE MIGHT GO FROM HERE......Page 40
TOWARD A MORE EFFECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF MENTAL HEALTH......Page 45
MENTAL HEALTH AS EXCEPTION TO THE RULE......Page 49
A PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION......Page 51
NOTES......Page 52
2. The Psychology of Definition in Psychiatric Nosology......Page 53
THE NEED FOR A PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFINITION......Page 55
THE PURPOSES OF DEFINITION IN PSYCHIATRIC NOSOLOGIES......Page 56
STIPULATIVE DEFINITIONS AS SOURCES OF AUTHORITY......Page 58
REAL DEFINITION AND REIFICATION......Page 60
DEFINING MENTAL DISORDERS INTO EXISTENCE......Page 62
THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NATURE OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFINITION......Page 63
CHOICES IN THE INTERPRETATION AND RECOGNITION OF DISEASE: PHYSICAL PATHOLOGY AND MENTAL DISORDER......Page 65
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SYMPTOM CLUSTERING......Page 67
PSYCHIATRY’S INFLATIONARY ONTOLOGY......Page 71
THE CONCEPT OF MENTAL ILLNESS IS NO MYTH BUT THE RESULT OF DYSFUNCTIONAL THOUGHT......Page 73
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RESISTANCE TO IDIOPATHIC DISEASE......Page 75
DO INTERNAL MALFUNCTIONS OR DYSFUNCTIONS UNDERLIE PSYCHIATRIC SYNDROMES?......Page 76
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFINITION AND CLAIMS TO TRUTH......Page 78
THE NEXT STEP IN REIFICATION......Page 80
INTELLIGENT SCIENCE AND STOPGAP DEFINITIONS......Page 81
TO SUMMARIZE......Page 83
IS NOSOLOGY ESSENTIAL TO EFFECTIVE CLINICAL PRACTICE?......Page 86
NOTES......Page 89
3. The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity and the Pathology of Normality......Page 92
THE ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVITY......Page 93
THE INNER TURMOIL THESIS......Page 95
WHO IS HARMED? THE ASCRIPTION OF PATHOLOGY......Page 97
THE SITUATIONAL THESIS......Page 98
THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF NORMALITY......Page 101
THE PSYCHIATRIC PLIGHT OF THE ARTIST......Page 104
AFTERWORD......Page 106
NOTES......Page 107
Part II. Psychology During a Collapse of Culture......Page 109
4. Acedia: When Work and Money Are the Exclusive Values......Page 111
WORK AND CULTURAL BANKRUPTCY......Page 113
THE SYMPTOMS OF ACEDIA......Page 117
ACEDIA: MORAL FAILURE OR PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER?......Page 119
TREATMENT OF WORK-ENGENDERED DEPRESSION......Page 122
NOTES......Page 123
5. Barbarians at the Door: A Psychological and Historical Profile of Today’s College Students......Page 124
WHAT HIGHER EDUCATION MEANT......Page 125
THE DEGRADATION OF THE IDEAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION AS A RESULT OF DEMOCRATIC VALUES......Page 126
THE SELF-UNDERMINING HISTORY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA......Page 129
THE PATHOLOGY OF NARCISSISM......Page 135
BARBARITY AS A STATE OF MIND......Page 141
THE MEDIOCRE POPULATION, THE NEW BARBARIANS......Page 142
THE NEW DARK AGE, ALREADY IN PROGRESS, AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION......Page 144
SOBERING REFLECTIONS......Page 146
NOTES......Page 148
6. Psychology, Culture, and the Demoralization of University Faculty......Page 149
THE NATURE OF CAREER BURNOUT......Page 151
THE CONCEPT OF SITUATIONAL DEPRESSION......Page 153
THE SITUATION IN THE LIBERAL ARTS......Page 155
SITUATIONAL DEPRESSION OF FACULTY IN THE LIBERAL ARTS......Page 159
ADJUSTMENT DISORDERS AND THE LIBERAL ARTS......Page 160
TREATMENT FOR LIBERAL ARTS DEMORALIZATION......Page 163
NOTES......Page 165
Part III. Beyond Long-standing Facts......Page 167
7. The Psychology of Abuse in Publishing: Peer Review and Editorial Bias......Page 169
GAG ORDERS THROUGH TIME: SOCRATES, SAVONAROLA, COPERNICUS, BRUNO, GALILEO......Page 174
RELIGIOUS BELIEF, IMPRIMATUR, THE INQUISITION, AND THE......Page 176
SEDITION, TREASON, CENSORS, AND CENSORSHIP......Page 178
ACADEMIC FREEDOM VERSUS PEER REVIEW AND EDITORIAL TAMPERING......Page 179
RUNNING AFOUL OF THE BELIEF SYSTEMS OF PEER REVIEWERS AND EDITORS: VARIETIES OF ABUSE IN PEER REVIEW AND EDITORIAL TAMPERING......Page 181
THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF PEER REVIEW AND EDITORIAL BIAS: BLOCKS TO CREATIVE RESEARCH......Page 189
OBLIGATIONS TO WHICH PEER REVIEW AND EDITING MUST ANSWER......Page 192
A CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PEER REVIEWERS AND EDITORS......Page 194
REMOVING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSTACLES ERECTED BY PEER REVIEW......Page 195
CONCLUSION......Page 196
NOTES......Page 198
8. The Psychology of Mediocrity: Internal Limitations That Block Human Development......Page 200
A BRIEF HISTORY OF A MUNDANE TRINITY: MEDIOCRITY, MEDIOCRE, MEDIOCRACY......Page 205
PAST ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MEDIOCRITY......Page 208
MEDIOCRITY AS A SET OF TRAITS......Page 213
THE MAJOR DEFINING TRAITS OF MEDIOCRITY......Page 217
“PEOPLE WHO AREN’T REAL”......Page 231
RESISTANCE TO ACKNOWLEDGING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN ABILITIES......Page 233
THE EPIDEMIC OF MEDIOCRITY......Page 235
MEDIOCRITY: ARRHOSTIA OR SPANDREL?......Page 237
TRAITS OF EXCELLENCE AND SUPERIORITY......Page 238
REJECTING NORMALITY AS A STANDARD OF MENTAL HEALTH......Page 242
THE TRANSMISSION OF MEDIOCRITY......Page 246
“A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN”: THE VIEW FROM THE THIRD FLOOR......Page 248
NOTES......Page 252
9. Normality, Pathology, and Mental Health......Page 255
THE ROMANES PRINCIPLE......Page 256
TWO PROMISING DIRECTIONS AND TWO KINDS OF PATHOLOGY......Page 259
CREATING MENTAL DISORDERS BY BALLOT......Page 262
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESISTANCE TO THE ABANDONMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL NORMALITY AS MENTAL HEALTH......Page 263
PSYCHOLOGICAL PRIMITIVENESS......Page 266
IATROGENIC EFFECTS OF PSYCHIATRIC LABELING......Page 269
AFTERWORD......Page 270
NOTES......Page 272
Part IV. In Retrospect......Page 273
THE ECONOMICS OF HUMAN EMOTION......Page 275
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DYNAMIC OF A DARK AGE......Page 278
SUBORDINATING MUNDANE REALITY......Page 280
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS......Page 284
IDEALISM THAT IS NOT HOPEFUL......Page 287
NOTE......Page 288
Appendix I. An Apology to Lovers of Humanity?......Page 289
Appendix II. Practical Speculations, or Speculative Practices......Page 291
Appendix III. The Distribution of Mental Health......Page 295
References......Page 299
Index......Page 315
About the Author......Page 331