bella lloyd > Recent Status Updates

it may not always be easy to identify issues when someone has suffered brain damage. Patients with marked abnormalities can perform normally on many and even most intelligence tests.

The book describes how the modern developments we have made in neuro imaging and other areas have allowed us to investigate historical psychological cases, such as Phineas Gage, and how these case studies can be used for further understanding.

it could be said that the change to Gage’s character and the loss of his ability to plan his future was some form of a loss of consciousness - is it fair to say that his soul was diminished?

silences can mean many things and can be important in different ways to different people. silence may not mean they don’t want to talk - it may be its own form of communication.

sometimes it is not important to give one a label or pathologise them; instead, it may be more important to to recognise their individual beliefs, behaviour and experience as a unique person and not to classify them.

it explores the use of dream analysis and how it can genuinely inform our feelings in emotional situations (in as non a cliche way as possible)

‘when we envy our children we deceive ourselves - we think too little of them and too well of ourselves’

everyone has paranoid fantasies. it is often theorised they allow us to rid ourselves of anger or sexual feelings. it mainly seems that they are a response to the feeling that we are being treated with indifference.

‘the bigger the front the bigger the back’ and the psychoanalytic term splitting.

discusses the relevance of praising our children, differing parental attitudes to it and covering a psychoanalytical perspective on attachment.

for some, being sick and psychological care is comforting and they don’t want to leave that comfort.

it has piqued my interest in the intertwining aspects of law and psychology and the potential ways that studying/a career in psychology can also lead to you doing work as an expert witness/other legal aspects.

conversations with patients should go beyond the usual ‘illness’ script and respect the person’s construction of their own history and experience.

- some mental health disorders carry more stigma than others (schizophrenia)
- there are social disadvantages that are linked to the development of mental health disorders

link to Rosenhan’s psychiatric ward experiment - if you are considered bad, all your behaviour is construed as madness.

- malingering ( link to WEX)
- how a secure psychiatric unit may not always be the soft option in comparison to prison

although empathy can be useful when dealing with clients as a psychologist, it is important to recognise these prejudices are not helpful when assessing a client.

- addresses the notion of mental illness and intention when committing a crime (links to my epq)
- introduces using one’s own personal experiences as a professional to aid similar situations when dealing with patients

boundaries need to be maintained but not at the expense of being authentic

there is no ‘them and us’ when criminals are considered. people carry internalised profiles and sometimes we cannot even recognise the criminals that move among us.