Disorders

Need info on a disorder not listed here? The Writer's Guide to Psychology: How to Write Accurately about Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior by Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD is packed with detailed information on diagnosis, disorders, and treatments!

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Psychological professionals make diagnoses using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). Statistics on the various disorders are available in the DSM; they're also released by groups like the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).

Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Childhood

ADHD: Traits of People with ADHD by Dr Kenny Handelman

Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities): Being Multiple in a Singleton World by Lisa Featherston - What it's like to have multiple personalities
Dissociative Identity Disorder: A classic psychology video of Christine "Chris" Costner-Sizemore, who is most famous as the woman about whom The Three Faces of Eve was made. A lot of people find this video "unconvincing," but you can see the differences if you watch. Opens on Google Video.

Personality (Axis II) Disorders

Brief Description of Each Personality Disorder: Personality Disorders by David McEvoy
Antisocial: Sociopaths by Lisa Featherston
Borderline: Borderline Personality Disorder by Arthur Buchanan

Psychotic Disorders

Schizophrenia: Reflections on Madness (a first-hand account of schizophrenia) by Yvonne Nahat
Schizophrenia: Hallucinations (first-hand account by someone with schizophrenia) by Yvonne Nahat

Hospitalization & Suicide

Involuntary Hospitalization Around the World by Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD

Multicultural Issues

Treatments should always be tailored to the needs of the client and the problems she brings in the door. American psychology places strong emphasis on multicultural competence, which means that therapists receive special training in the needs of minorities.

GLB: Authenticity and the Gay Identity By James P. Krehbiel, Ed.S., LPC
Transsexualism: Does A Sex Change Really Change Your Sex? by Juniper

Additional Resources:

What Happens When People "Go Crazy"?

Minds don't snap by Lewis P. Lipsitt. Abstract: When tragic, unbelievable behaviors seem to emerge suddenly from nowhere, they are invariably preceded by a process that was under way for years. If we could learn how human experiences work to erode an individual's stability, we could become sensitive to imminent disasters and intervene to prevent them. But if we go on believing that "crazy behaviors" are happenstances, we will never get to their roots.

Mental illness and stigma: Coping with the ridicule

Statistics on Stigma and Privacy

Psychology and the Law

The Insanity Defense and diminished capacity - Cornell Law School

--> Andrea Yates: More To The Story by Timothy Roche. Abstract (of sorts): Five children were dead, drowned by their mother in a case that shocked their family and stunned the world... In Texas, the law on insanity defenses is among the most restrictive in the nation. So...it was not enough for Yates' defense lawyers to simply prove that she twice attempted suicide, had been hospitalized four times for psychiatric care and nursed a psychosis before the drownings clearly documented in thousands of pages of medical records.