The Psychology of Behaviour Disorders. A Bio-social Interpretation
- Author:
Norman Cameron,
M.D., Ph.D. Houghton Mifflin & Co. London: H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd. 25s.
This important textbook is a very good example of progressive trends in American psychiatric thought. The author seeks to bring psychiatry and general psychology into closer connection and to give a psychological basis to psychiatric practice. His aim is to provide, for the understanding of behaviour disorders, a foundation similar to that offered by physiology for general medicine. His approach is dynamic and holistic, refusing to accept any simple dichotomy of psyche and soma and insisting on the totality of the situation?psyche?soma?environment-culture. ” We begin with … a biological organism operating in and by means of a social environment Cameron calls this approach ” biosocial since the organism’s biology is made to operate socially ” in terms of other needs, other interests as well as his ownThis outlook, whilst owing a great deal to Adolf Meyer, is also derived from the work of the Gestalt school, K. Lewin, H. A. Murjray and his associates.
It follows that his definition of abnormal behaviour will be a social one: ” an individual who was otherwise in good health (growing) seriously or progressively ineffectual as a social person Mental health is seen in terms of good and effective interpersonal relations. Yet the relativity of this concept of mental health is also stressed in the statement that abnormal behaviour is ” behaviour socially inappropriate in terms of the prevailing cultural norms
The first six chapters are concerned with an analysis of behaviour, based on the definition of personality as ” the organization, of interlocking systems that each of us develops through learning processes, as we grow from a biological newborn to a biosocial adult, in an environment of other individuals and cultural productsBiological factors are considered important, only, in their manner of operating socially. The emphasis is on the learning nature of biosocial behaviour. Thus the important formative influence of early childhood experience is due to the fact that techniques of behaviour learnt in relation to the mother are transposed to equivalent situations outside the home, and, in spite of being often socially unsuccessful and personally disastrous, they are not replaced by better ones. Adolescence is also stressed as a second period when behaviour trends can be altered. The nuclear conflict of adolescence is likewise described in terms of social ” presses the adolescent having to live according to a double standard, the standard of his parents’ generation and that of his peers.
In these chapters, three important aspects of personality organizations are described. First, ” role taking and Cameron shows how through role taking the individual acquires insight into the social attitudes and perspectives of others, and at the same time gains an impartial view of his own behaviour. The important point is made that ‘’ individual differences in ease and adequacy of shifting from one social role to another, in phantasy or discussion, seem to underline differences in individual susceptibility to some kinds of behaviour disorders
Secondly, the nineteenth-century instinctual approach to the personality is discarded in favour of a system of ” needs a need being defined as ‘’ a condition of unstable or disturbed equilibrium in an organism’s behaviour, appearing typically as increase or protracted activity and tension The point is made that because of conditions and traditions of group living, indirect or substitute satisfaction of needs plays a very prominent role in biosocial behaviour. The frustration of needs, by delay, thwarting or conflict, is the main stress which leads to behaviour disorders.
Thirdly, various mental mechanisms, as identification, rationalization, projection, etc., are treated as ” basic adjustive techniques ” and are linked with the frustration of needs. These basic adjustive techniques are defined as ” those habitual methods which human beings in our society use in overcoming, avoiding, circumventing, escaping from, or ignoring, frustration and threats “. The individual susceptibility to behaviour disorders is related to the kind of adjustive techniques he uses, the adequacy of these, and the ways in which he utilizes them.
The remaining two-thirds of the book are devoted to a description of the clinical behaviour disorders, and express the current dissatisfaction with the orthodox Kraepelinian system of classification. The plan for each chapter is the same: a clinical picture followed by aetiological considerations under two headings?” The biosocial basis i.e. ” from what characteristics of normal behaviour does the abnormal develop ? “; and ” The biosocial determinants “, i.e. ” what determinants are there which seem to favour the development of this particular abnormality in this individual ? ” It is the presence of these two questions which gives the book its particular flavour.
It is to be regretted that in support of many of the generalizations few objective data are given. Some of the concepts, e.g. ” social maturity “, need greater analysis and characterization. Further thought should be given to a more adequate system of ” needs “, particularly to those needs which are culturally determined. It is surprising to see so many pages devoted to hysteria (with little analysis of the factors producing the altered clinical picture of the last fifty years), and so few to the psychosomatic disorders which are surely biosocial disorders par excellence. In general, however, the author explains his point of view well and clearly. The attempt to place the patient in his total biosocial situation is successful. This book will undoubtedly help the student in his approach to the patient. P.M.T.
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