[Place to explore "adaptive but aversive" definitions of mental illness?]

15 minutes ago, Clinapp2017 said:

Maybe I am missing the nuance of your points, but I largely think any good program which trains in CBT, ACT, and DBT would fit your needs. The concept you describe is flexibly applied in most modern evidence-based approaches (minus the philosophy of what is/is not socially appropriate). Most therapists who use these evidence based techniques will work on building up a toolbox of different ways to respond to emotions/situations AND teach clients that emotions serve a purpose, so often we should listen to them but may need to employ other skills to reduce the extreme aversive reaction to the emotions. 

 

Where you want to go in the end should center on your end goal (academia? clinical work?). It's a very important topic, especially as we think cross-culturally about the views of emotions and emotional dysregulation. 

I'm not what my endgoal is, I'm just interested in a perspective which recognizes that "disorders" themselves (not just "emotions") have an underlying purpose (maybe you're saying in practice those two things collapse together).

[Place to explore "adaptive but aversive" definitions of mental illness?]

12 minutes ago, RandomPotato said:

Sounds a little bit like functional contextualism to me where there isn't right or wrong emotions/behaviors like CBT (where the focus is to reduce and hopefully eliminate 'wrong' thinking pattern) and every so called dysfunctional behaviors serve some kind of useful function to the person (Ex. Suicidal thoughts provide sense of comfort to someone suffering from severe depression). Instead of determining right or wrong based on social/cultural norms and fixing the wrong behaviors, functional contextual therapists believe every client has their stand-alone context/reality and the goal is to help clients function better in their own context. ACT and RFT are two popular approaches grounded in this framework. 

I suppose so although I've never heard that particular term. The only distinction I would draw is that it's not simply about rejecting societal norms in evaluating behaviors, but determining whether they're useful and/or productive in achieving desired outcomes which necessarily involves the reality of others (but not necessarily "society" per se).

(I'm wary of the latent solipsism of philosophies which seek to promote well-being on purely self-defined terms. But these are relatively fine points; it sounds like RFT is closer than ACT to what I'm saying.)

[Place to explore "adaptive but aversive" definitions of mental illness?]

On 6/18/2020 at 11:29 PM, Clinapp2017 said:

A little confused by this post. So you want to study this concept more in graduate school? 
 

The reason I’m confused is this is not a novel concept. All emotions can be adaptive; the definition of an emotional disorder implies that the emotions, which were once helpful to us in some way, have become aversive experiences and are impairing some aspect of daily life. The emotional disorders can be caused by distressing events, but are not always tied to a precipitating event. Most clinical psychologists agree about this, so what exactly interests you about this perspective (or am I missing something)?

I think there's a distinction between what I'm saying insofar as these "aversive emotions" (or whatever you want to call them) actually do have a positive function (which nonetheless clashes with what society whats/requires so they become "dysfunctional").

So I think in a way it's very different from the field at large, because it calls into question the very notion of psychological pathology (but yes I want to study this in grad school, and/or find a program which incorporates this perspective).

[Programs similar to Brunel's Culture, Psychology and Evolution?]

I found this program online which combines my main interests in psychology (culture and evolution, critical psychology is the third) but a professor of mine who is English said Brunel isn't considered a very competitive university over there (I have no problem relocating for school [I'm U.S.-based]).

Is there anything similar anyone has ever hear of? (I know LSE, U of Alberta and U of Amsterdam have cultural psych master's, but none of them add a focus on evolutionary psychology).

Thanks

 

[Looking for Dual Philosophy/Psychology PhD Programs]

Boston University also has one, also Emory, Stanford and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland

 

[Place to explore "adaptive but aversive" definitions of mental illness?]

A recent article called "Mental Health is Biological Health" (Hagen and Syme 2019) has called for overhauling the entire field of psychiatry (they are anthropologists)...they create different categories for mental illness(es) including one which they called "adaptive but aversive" (e.g., depression, anxiety); these are seen as reactions to life-events which aren't necessarily disorders (but do cause distress).

I am fascinated by this approach and would like to explore it, can anyone recommend a place anywhere in the English-speaking world which would be a good place to start? (currently I'm looking at an MSc in "Psychology, Culture and Evolution" at Brunel just west of London but studying overseas is a complicated issue right now obviously).

Thanks

[Cross-Cultural Clinical Psychology: Professors? Programs?]

There are master's programs in Cultural Psychology at both the London School of Economics and University of Amsterdam (pretty sure Dutch universities always allow you to speak/write in English if you want).

(I'm going to try and go to the one in London in fall of 2021.)

[Social/Personality or General for M.A. at American U.?]

On 1/1/2020 at 5:28 PM, lolhelp said:

Are you only considering pursuing a master's at American or are you open to other programs at other institutions? 

I'm open to others, in fact I would just be at AU to try living in D.C. for a year and to take some master's level courses in non-psych disciplines at the same time (history, anthro and finance).

(I'm only expecting to be able to transfer less than ten psych credits anyway to some place else.)

[Social/Personality or General for M.A. at American U.?]

33 minutes ago, Psygeek said:

Note that good PhDs tend to be funded (teaching assistants/research assistants/fellowship, Masters generally are not. PhDs are harder to get into though for that reason. And then theres the PsyD.

Yes I understand that, I'm ok with paying out of pocket for a year or two (not sure I'm as interested in Psy.D. route, partially because that's out of pocket for 4-5 years from what I understand).

[Social/Personality or General for M.A. at American U.?]

On 12/29/2019 at 11:48 AM, Psygeek said:

Is there any specific reason why you want to do a Masters?

Not ready to commit the time and money to do a Ph.D. (or even sure I want to do one, although if I did I might go to the University of West Georgia where they prefer applicants to have a master's already).

[Social/Personality or General for M.A. at American U.?]

I'm thinking of applying for a master's at American University in Washington, D.C. for the next fall (2020)...currently finishing up a second B.A. in psych at Hunter College in New York City (mid 40s).

I might just go part-time and stay one year in D.C. and then transfer to another program and take a few credits with me...which program would I have a better chance of getting accepted into? (I'm not going to tell them I'm planning to leave after one year obviously).

(There's also an experimental/biological track but I'm not interested in that; AU offers three tracks at the M.A. level.)

My GRE scores were Verbal 165, Quantitative 157, Writing 4.5., should be able to get decent recommendations.

[Any Americans Studying Clinical Psychology in the UK?]

On 11/29/2019 at 1:03 PM, Schy said:

I'm applying to a bunch of PhD programs in the US, but I also plan on applying to MA/MS programs in europe/Australia and I feel so lost in the process! Do you just apply normally as an international applicant, wait to hear back, AND THEN that's when you worry about Visa stuff? 

I haven't gotten that far in the process but I would look at each program online and see what they have to say (I can't imagine you would apply for a visa beforehand, but I could be wrong).

[PhD in Psychology and Public Policy]

Princeton has a Joint Degree Program in Social Policy which includes psychology: http://wws.princeton.edu/graduate-programs/programs-and-certificates/joint-degree-program-social-policy

[Advice needed: get a Phd or second master's?]

Johns Hopkins has a certificate program in Mental Health Public Policy; I believe it's free for grad students there (so you could do a Ph.D. at the same time as long as you can manage both).

[Any Americans Studying Clinical Psychology in the UK?]

You might get more responses if you elaborated a little more on why you are interested in doing it in the U.K.--is it purely logistical (e.g., British spouse who's getting transferred back home)? Or are you interested in settling down there long-term for your own reasons?

(I'm interested in doing a one-year M.A. in the London area [Brunel Psychiatric Anthropology or LSE Social & Cultural Psychology] because they're unique [and in English obviously] but not clinical.)

[Switching between PhD programs (from America to Europe)]

On 8/9/2019 at 5:58 AM, Psygeek said:

Do note that often US PhDs are regarded as better/prefered over European PhDs.

Do you mean in Europe or just the U.S.? OP said s/he was interested in staying in Europe after graduation iirc...

[Fall 2019 Post-Bacc Research Programs]

I  believe UPenn also has one as well as the American College in (of?) Greece.

[Grad programs critical of mainstream psychology]

I'm interested in doing a grad program in psychology/mental health but only one that challenges mainstream norms of the biomedical disease model, so far the only two I've found online that sound right are the University of West Georgia and Duquesne (Pittsburgh, PA)...currently living in New York City but willing to relocate, do others know of any programs that would support this perspective? (I don't know which degree path I would pursue yet, probably an MA or Ph.D. rather than MSW or Psy.D, ultimately I would like to be involved in some kind of care like the Open Dialogue program being run in New York [also Atlanta and Northampton, Mass]). Programs in family therapy and/or ones which address cross-cultural issues would also be of interest to me.

Thanks

[Postbac programs for Psych?]

I'm looking at a midlife career change to psychology, I double-majored in history and German Studies 25 years ago as an undergrad and am taking an intro to Psych course for credit right now at Hunter College in NYC, I've seen some postbac programs around online like at Columbia but also the American College in Greece which I might explore, or I might continue taking undergrad psych courses at Hunter for the next year or so (taking at least eight total, including all the regular ones required for most applications: intro, development, abnormal, stats/research, personality); is one path seen as better than the others? (are postbac courses taught differently than undergrad ones? It might be easier for me to be around adults seeking to just get their requirements met rather than being told to put their smartphones away, quizzed to help them develop their study habits and so on, but I don't know if I want the full-time study route right now that a certificate program would entail [I like the part-time study and part-time working balance]).

P.S. I'm only really interested in Duquesne and the University of West Georgia right now because of their openness to critical psychology and models of the mind not based solely on the biomedical model (but I don't know my end goal yet of being a therapist, researcher, psych instructor, etc.)