In the mental health field there is used the DSM IV manual to describe characteristics of individuals who are suffering personality disturbances. The purpose of the DSM IV Manual is to provide mental health professionals a tool to make a diagnosis that will communicate to other health professionals and insurance companies. Mental illnesses are now being treated with drugs developed to alter moods or bring an individual back to being a fully functioning member of society. In some cases some defendants are restored to be able to be competent to stand trial.
The mental health field has its own history of development beginning with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and now a huge list of followers that have diverged but have become practitioners of psychology, psychiatry, social workers, etc. The therapy model is one that is readily used to try correct deviant human behavior.
Psychiatry is a science and an art and inexact at best. Many trials have been influenced, persuaded in the past by the psychiatrist testimony. Currently, there is a trend not to use them because different psychiatrist have strikingly different opinions. The testimony is now considered to be less credible. Still in Asia the culture does not accept the belief in the unconscious or psychology.
At times I have believed that the DSM IV acts from stereotypes and profiling and yet it is a medical model that we as a society need. Sometimes I think that Psychology as a discipline of science has become a new religion. I was browsing a book on psychology that worded the phrase “thou shalt be honest”. I have no problem accepting honesty as a value regardless of what the belief source is. However the “thou shalt” wording was troubling. The psychology of Sigmund Freud has profoundly effected our legal system.
The study of human nature is central to many disciplines in high school. Can we ever escape the fact that human nature is a mystery and that many of our careers and educational endeavors are spent trying to define, understand, encourage, analyze, and care for people? All of our careers are centered on making the world a better more enjoyable place to live, or at best trying to ensure survival of our young in society that is democratic and to enjoy the freedoms our constitution insures.
Most of the educational skills being taught center on the human being in one discipline or another. Literature, history, food science, consumer science, science, and math. What then is the human being? What is the defining moment, moments, or descriptions of a human beings actions, behavior or demeanor that may challenge us to say that we are not more than just animals. Perhaps we are not all superior to the ape or are we?
This unit will aim to look at some of the philosophical concerns that face us as a human race. Why are human beings violent to one another? It is obvious that nations rise against nations, and that religions rise against religions but why do individuals murder other individuals? Why do individuals sometimes turn on loved ones? Why do individuals murder randomly?
If left to me all acts of violence are insane. This is not the question. The question is was the person or persons who committed the violence insane, or of mental defect at the time the crime was committed.