Psychological Models of Abnormality

The psychological model of abnormality also stems from ancient Greece. In
the second century c.e., the Greek physician Galen described a patient
whose symptoms were caused either by an inflammation of the uterus or by
something about which she was troubled but which she was not willing to
discuss. He tested these two hypotheses and concluded that the patient’s
problem was psychological in origin.

The psychological model gained support when French physician Jean-
Martin Charcot (1825-1893) used hypnosis to distinguish hysterical paralysis
(with no organic cause) from neurologically based paralysis. When Charcot
hypnotized patients, those with hysterical paralysis could use their supposedly
paralyzed body part. One of his students, Austrian physician Sigmund
Freud (1856-1939), expanded this approach. Freud and others believed
that mental disorders usually begin with a traumatic event in childhood and
can be treated with psychotherapy, a formof “talking cure.” Today, there are
four main psychological models of abnormality: psychoanalytic, behavioral,
humanistic, and cognitive.