Wacko Jacko-a question on our midterm!!

Master of Prissface

I had my Psychopathology midterm tonight, and guess what one of the ESSAY questions was!!! Based on the interview with Michael Jackson, can he be classified as having a mental disorder! My teacher just loves current events......

The catch was, you had to use the diagnostic manual's definition of a mental disorder AND could only base your answer on the facts given: his statements that he has NOT had surgical alterations done to his nose, and that he has not had sexual relations (where'd we hear THIS before, Republicans?) with the young boys he sleeps with. A lot more difficult than you'd think to justify from a clinical standpoint without further psychological evaluation, and a very good exercise in determining the difference between ethical and moral judgment and clinical diagnosis. I love this class!! We've discussed Pete Townsend, Clara Harris, the woman who ran over her cheating hubby, and the guy local here who burned down the apartment and then jumped a few weeks ago. VERY interesting the rebuttals he had to some of our snap judgment arguments.

the kilted one

so from that list, who's crazy and who's sane?

Member

So what was your answer? Crazy like a fox?

Member

So, what was your answer? (Clif-notes please) Crazy like a fox? Or just plain crazy?

your favorite weapon

i'm making a shirt.

it's gonna say something to the effect of "quit hating micheal jackson"

actually, my buddy last night had downloaded and oprah clip with him (pre really freakish nose)... and he does this like freestyle beat machine, and sings out some song (i dunno if he made it up). but we were just blown away. the boy has skills and you just can't deny that.

-blue

Member

Adjunct

would locking him up in a padded room, and throwing away the key be a good answer to solve his problem. Mr. Green

Excelent

, yeah he has some issues. They could prolly write some text books about him

Gone Fishin

A boy trapped in a morphing body. He's doesn't seem clinical psychotic, but he needs to grow up. Obviously any formal education he had must have ended by the time he was eight. Just listening to his vocabulary, references used in conversation, topics of conversation, the way he behaves, obviously uncomfortable with anyone older than fifteen, and the all encompassing need to surround himself with little kids...it's like he's still eight years old. Kids are self-centered, don't understand future-tense (like his comment, "I'll live forever"), focus on play instead of work, attention and approval seeking.. he displays it all. I attribute the outward appearance to immaturity meeting money, but inside the head is mind buying a life to remain eight years old.

Master of Prissface

Actually, jrjo, you're not far off. There is a disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which is part of what I said he is suffering from, where a person becomes obsessed with a particular part of the body that he/she feels is flawed, and no matter what they do to it, it is never "perfected." A similar mindset to the anorexic patient, they see a fat person no matter how much they starve their body into skeletal appearance. It's delusional thinking, non-reality based, and clinically backed up by matching the diagnostic criteria.

The other part, unfortunately, is an ethical/moral conflict at this point, which you have to be very careful about in diagnostics. Since the testimony of the one 13 year old from years ago was not included in the question, and since there's no other testimony from other kids (yet) we could not diagnose him as a pedophile, which IS a legitimate mental disorder. Same with Pete Townsend, without looking further into his history and seeing the whole picture, does he have a child porn collection? does he have a history of visiting these sites, or was it really just research? you cannot make the clinical diagnosis needed. You are merely labeling someone on suspicion connected with social and ethical concerns, which are not necessarily classifiable as mental disorders. Speculation is not grounds for diagnosis, whether or not we all KNOW he's insane, without the clinical evidence, we can't prove it.

Very very frustrating to us as clinicians. It's the same with the terrorists, it's a point of cultural relativism: what's right and acceptable in our culture is not the same as what's right in theirs, so we would look at them and think, that's crazy.....but there is no clear basis in the PSYCHIATRIC world for that assessment. What they did was based on their religious beliefs alone, that Americans are evil and deserve to die, yada yada.....and there is no diagnosable mental disorder that covers this. It's again, a question of ethics and morality based on our country's values. That was a tough one to swallow, believe me.

Master of Prissface

Part of my answer was that the diagnostic criteria has many limitations, and should either be further refined or used merely as a guideline, but that detailed psychiatric evaluation and history reports are a must in digging for answers in order to fulfill a set of requirements for clinical assessment. Again, very frustrating but something we as clinicians have to be very aware of. Prejudice and social judgment have no place in the clinical world, because you are dealing with illness, not ethics, in many cases.

PS-the Clara Harris thing was, again, inconclusive-more history was warranted but we surmised that with no prior hisotry to explosive or violent behavior that it was an adjustment reaction, isolated incident, and probably the same with the guy in Bristol, however I think he did have some history, I read that somewhere. The bottom line they were trying to teach us is that you cannot make a snap judgment based on gut instinct and that thorough examination of the entire picture, dynamics, neurobiology, behavioral history, cognitive processes, is needed to be able to make an accurate diagnosis in any instance. Whew!! This is heavy stuff....

Frightened Inmate #2

Master of Prissface

Wacko Jacko-a question on our midterm!!

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