An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Teaching of Abnormal Psychology:

Rationale, Advantages, and Challenges

James Hansell, Ph.D. University of MichiganThird International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Saint

Petersburg, Russia, July 14, 2008

Abstract

In this presentation, I report on my experiences teaching Abnormal Psychology at the University of Michigan utilizing an interdisciplinary method in which links between the course material and the arts, popular culture, and current events are emphasized. My aim is to enhance student interest in this course and in psychology as a discipline -- to make the course matter to students beyond their interest in a good grade. For each topic presented in lecture and in readings, the scientific literature is presented in the context of political, sociological, and artistic issues or examples of the relevant mental disorders, their causes, and their treatments. Students report that this method of teaching increases the relevance of their Abnormal Psychology course, provides useful connections to other courses in their curriculum, and increases their interest in the field of psychology.

Suggested Topics (Lecture or Discussion format)

“Song of the Week” (familiar and unfamiliar)

Topic X: Why It Matters (relevance items)

Disorder X “In the News” (recent news stories)

Disorder X “In the Arts” (students love this!)

Disorder X: “Current Controversies”

Chapter 2

Defining Abnormality: What is Psychopathology?

Song of the Week: Green Day’s Basket Case

Do you have the time

To listen to me whine

About nothing and everything

all at once

I am one of those

Melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone

no doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid

Or am I just stoned

I went to a shrink

To analyze my dreams

She says it's lack of sex

That's bringing me down

I went to a whore

He said my life's a bore

So quit my whining cause

It's bringing her down

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid

Or am I just stoned

Grasping to control

So I better hold on

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid

Or am I just stoned

Defining Abnormality – Why it Matters

Politics and power

Medical treatment

Social issues

Philosophical and scientific questions

Defining Abnormality - In the News (politics and power) Russia: Activist Sent To Psychiatric Unit After Exposing Health

Facilities By Chloe Arnold

MOSCOW, August 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An opposition activist has been locked in a mental-health institution in Murmansk Oblast for criticizing health professionals, her husband and human-rights groups claim.

Dmitry Tereshin has hardly slept since July 5, the day his wife, Larisa Arap, telephoned him from the local hospital in Murmansk to say doctors were forcibly admitting her to a psychiatric unit. She had gone to the hospital for a routine check-up she needed to renew her driver's license.

"In my opinion, it may have been because of the article, because the

doctor had read the article Larissa wrote," Tereshin told RFE/RL. "The article was entitled 'Madhouse,' and it revealed what goes on in psychiatric clinics.“

And More News…. (Medical treatment) Bipolar Illness Soars as a Diagnosis for the

Young The New York Times September 4, 2007 by Benedict Carey

The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003, researchers report today in the most comprehensive study of the controversial diagnosis.

Defining abnormality – Issues and controversies (social and philosophical questions)

Thomas Szasz: "Inasmuch as we have words to describe medicine as a healing art, but have none to describe it as a method of social control or political rule, we must first give it a name. I propose that we call it pharmacracy, from the Greek roots pharmakon, for ‘medicine' or ‘drug,' and kratein, for ‘to rule' or ‘to control.' ... As theocracy is rule by God or priests, and democracy is rule by the people or the majority, so pharmacracy is rule by medicine or physicians."--Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers, by Thomas Szasz, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), p. 139.)

Stigma (video)

Chapter 3: Explaining and Treating Abnormality

What Causes Psychopathology?

Dance of the Week

http://youtube.com/watch?v=grpcBsgORTM

Explaining and Treating Abnormality: Issues and controversies The Economics of Szasz: Preferences,

Constraints and Mental Illness Bryan Caplan, Rationality and Society, Vol. 18, No. 3, 333-366 (2006)

Even confirmed economic imperialists typically acknowledge that economic theory does not apply to the seriously mentally ill. Building on psychiatrist Thomas Szasz’s philosophy of mind, this article argues that most mental illnesses are best modeled as extreme preferences, not constraining diseases. This perspective sheds light not only on relatively easy cases like personality disorders, but also on the more extreme cases of delusions and hallucinations. Contrary to Szasz’s critics, empirical advances in brain science and behavioral genetics are largely orthogonal to his position. While involuntary psychiatric treatment might still be rationalized as a way to correct intra-family externalities, it is misleading to think about it as a benefit for the patient.

Chapter 4: Classifying Abnormality

Diagnosis and Assessment

Song (and video) of the Week – Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

I remember whenI remember, I remember when I lost my mindThere was something so pleasant about that phaseEven your emotions had an echoAnd so much spaceHmm mmmmAnd when you're out thereWithout careYeah I was out of touchBut it wasn't because I didn't know enoughI just knew too muchDoes that make me crazy (x3)Probably

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

and I hope that you are having the time of your lifeBut think twiceThats my only adviceCome on nowWho do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you areHa ha ha!Bless your soulYou really think you're in controlWell I think you're crazy (x3)Just like meMy heros had the heart, to put their lives out on the limbAnd all I remember, is thinking I want to be like themHmm mmmEver since I was littleEver since I was little it looked like funAnd its no coincidence I've comeAnd I can die when I'm doneBut maybe I'm crazyMaybe you're crazyMaybe we're crazyProbably

Diagnosis and Assessment in the News Mind Over Manual By SALLY SATEL

The New York Times September 13, 2007

“Earlier this summer, the American Psychiatric Association announced that a 27-member panel will update its official diagnostic handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The fifth edition, which is scheduled to come out in 2012, is likely to add new mental illnesses and refine some existing ones.”

Dr. Satel, continued “In a radical break from earlier editions….the D.S.M. III

categorized illnesses based on symptoms. A patient was said to have a condition if he or she had a certain number of the classic symptoms for a certain period of time. This approach promoted “inter-rater reliability” — the odds that two examiners would agree on what diagnosis to assign a patient.”

“Yet the manual remained silent on what caused the symptoms. The diagnosis of, say, schizophrenia did not reflect a known cause in the way syphilis is known to be an infection with a spirochete bacterium. The writers of the D.S.M. III were confident that science would one day fill this vacuum, yet three decades later psychiatry still lacks a firm grasp of the causal underpinnings of mental illness.”

Chapter 5

Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders

Song of the Week: Stage Fright by The Band – Lyrics by J.R. (Robbie) Robertson Now deep in the heart of a lonely kid

Who suffered so much for what he did,They gave this ploughboy his fortune and fame,Since that day he ain't been the same.See the man with the stage frightJust standin' up there to give it all his might.And he got caught in the spotlight,But when we get to the endHe wants to start all over again.I've got fire water right on my breathAnd the doctor warned me I might catch a death.Said, "You can make it in your disguise,Just never show the fear that's in your eyes."See the man with the stage fright,Just standin' up there to give it all his might.He got caught in the spotlight,But when we get to the endHe wants to start all over again.Now if he says that he's afraid,Take him at his word.And for the price that the poor boy has paid,He gets to sing just like a bird, oh, ooh ooh ooh.Your brow is sweatin' and your mouth gets dry,Fancy people go driftin' by.The moment of truth is right at hand,Just one more nightmare you can stand.See the man with the stage frightJust standin' up there to give it all his might.And he got caught in the spotlight,But when we get to the endHe wants to start all over againYou wanna try it once againPlease don't make him stop

Let him take it from the top, Let him start all over again.

Anxiety, in Life and Art The Age of Anxiety?

Literature and film

Anxiety disorders: News and Controversies Shy on Drugs By CHRISTOPHER LANE The New York Times, September 21, 2007

It may seem baffling, even bizarre, that ordinary shyness could assume the dimension of a mental disease. But if a youngster is reserved, the odds are high that a psychiatrist will diagnose social anxiety disorder and recommend treatment…..

Self-help books and magazine articles further widened the definition of social anxiety disorder to include symptoms like test anxiety, aversion to writing on the blackboard and shunning of team sports. These ridiculously loose criteria led to more diagnoses, until social anxiety disorder in children began to look as if it were spreading like the common cold among second graders…..

Then, having alerted the masses to their worrisome avoidance of public restrooms, the psychiatrists needed a remedy. Right on cue, GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Paxil, declared in the late 1990s that its antidepressant could also treat social anxiety and, presumably, self-consciousness in restaurants. Nudged along by a public-awareness campaign (“Imagine Being Allergic to People”) that cost the drug maker more than $92 million in one year alone ($3 million more than Pfizer spent that year promoting Viagra), social anxiety quickly became the third most diagnosed mental illness in the nation, behind only depression and alcoholism.

Chapter 6

Mood and the Mood Disorders (formerly Affective disorders)

Song of the Week: Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix Manic depression is touching my soul

I know what I want but I just dont knowHow to, go about gettin itFeeling sweet feeling,Drops from my fingers, fingersManic depression is catchin my soul

Woman so weary, the sweet cause in vainYou make love, you break loveIts all the sameWhen its, when its over, mamaMusic, sweet musicI wish I could caress, caress, caressManic depression is a frustrating mess

Well, I think Ill go turn myself off,And go on downAll the way downReally aint no use in me hanging aroundIn your kinda scene

Music, sweet musicI wish I could caress, caress, caressManic depression is a frustrating mess

Mood Disorders in the News Antidepressants Now No. 1 Drug Prescribed For

Women 18-44 NBC 4.com, DC - Nov 15, 2007

Studies are showing that for every 100 American women, 37 have been prescribed an antidepressant, which is now the No. 1 drug prescribed to women ages 18 to 44

Mood Disorders in Art and Life “If they had Prozac in the 19th century…..”

Marx

Nietzsche

Poe

Chapter 7

Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders

Song of the Week: Once In a Lifetime by The Talking Heads And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack

And you may find yourself in another part of the worldAnd you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobileAnd you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful WifeAnd you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me downLetting the days go by/water flowing undergroundInto the blue again/after the moneys goneOnce in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself How do I work this? And you may ask yourself Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful house!And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down….

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removingThere is water at the bottom of the oceanCarry the water at the bottom of the oceanRemove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down….

And you may ask yourself What is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself Where does that highway go? And you may ask yourself Am I right? ...am I wrong? And you may tell yourself My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down…..

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Dissociation in the News I'm Not Really Running, I'm Not Really Running...

By Gina Kolata The New York Times December 6, 2007 “…Without realizing what I was doing, I dissociated a few months ago,

in the middle of a long, fast bike ride. I’d become so tired that I could not hold the pace going up hills. Then I hit upon a method — I focused only on the seat of the rider in front of me and did not look at the hill or what was to come. And I concentrated on my cadence, counting pedal strokes, thinking of nothing else. It worked. Now I know why.

Dr. Morgan, who has worked with hundreds of subelite marathon runners, said every one had a dissociation strategy. One wrote letters in his mind to everyone he knew. Another stared at his shadow. But, Dr. Morgan asked him, what if the sun is in front of you? Then, the man said, he focused on someone else’s shadow. But what if the sun goes behind a cloud, Dr. Morgan asked? “Then it’s tough,” the runner conceded.

Dissociation clearly works, Dr. Morgan said, but athletes who use it also take a chance on serious injury if they trick themselves into ignoring excruciating pain. There is, of course, a fine line between too much pain and too little for maximum performance.”

Dissociation in Life and Art

Rene Magritte “The Lovers” (1928)

The “zone”

Matt Dillon in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy

All illustrate the Importance of context

Dissociation in Life and Art In this paper we examine how aspects of dissociation permeate the

film-going experience. Specifically: (1) that the act of watching a film may viewed as a voluntary engagement in a positive dissociative experience; (2) that film directors and cinematographers use cinematic devices to convey and dramatize the peri- and post-traumatic dissociative experiences of their characters, and the force of these techniques may issue from the film-viewer's personal knowledge of normative dissociation; and (3) that representations of dissociative conditions and symptoms in film allow filmmakers to examine universal existential experiences and themes along with contemporary psychosocio-cultural issues, while exploiting the plot-expanding possibilities that inhere in the topics of memory, identity, and multiplicity. We propose that this innate or intuitive understanding may reflect the pervasive nonpathological presence, integration, and use of dissociative processes in everyday life.

BUTLER & PALESH (2004). Spellbound: Dissociation in the Movies Journal of trauma and dissociation. Vol. 5, no 2 pp. 61-87 

Chapter 8

Eating, Weight, and the Eating Disorders

Song of the Week Silverchair - Ana's Song (Open Fire)

Please die AnaFor as long as you're here we're notYou make the sound of laughterand sharpened nails seem softerAnd I need you now somehowAnd I need you now somehow

Open fire on the needs designedOn my knees for youOpen fire on my knees desiresWhat I need from you

Imagine pageant In my head the flesh seems thickerSandpaper tears corrode the filth

And I need you now somehowAnd I need you now somehow

Open fire on the needs designedOn my knees for youOpen fire on my knees desiresWhat I need from you

And you're my obsessionI love you to the bonesAnd Ana wrecks your lifeLike an Anorexia life

Open fire on the needs designedOn my knees for youOpen fire on my knees desiresWhat I need from youOpen fire on the needs designedOpen fire on my knees desiresOn my knees for you

Eating Disorders in Life and Art

Eating Disorders in the News: Surfing for Thinness: A Pilot Study of Pro–Eating Disorder Web Site Usage in Adolescents With Eating Disorders

OBJECTIVE. This pilot study investigated the awareness and usage of pro–eating disorder Web sites among adolescents with eating disorders and their parents and explored associations with health and quality of life.

PATIENTS AND METHODS. This was a cross-sectional study of 698 families of patients (aged 10–22 years) diagnosed with an eating disorder at Stanford between 1997 and 2004. Survey content included questions about disease severity, health outcomes, Web site usage, and parental knowledge of eating disorder Web site usage.

RESULTS. Surveys were returned by 182 individuals: 76 patients and 106 parents. Parents frequently (52.8%) were aware of pro–eating disorder sites, but an equal number did not know whether their child visited these sites, and only 27.6% had discussed them with their child. Most (62.5%) parents, however, did not know about pro-recovery sites. Forty-one percent of patients visited pro-recovery sites, 35.5% visited pro–eating disorder sites, 25.0% visited both, and 48.7% visited neither. While visiting pro–eating disorder sites, 96.0% reported learning new weight loss or purging techniques. However, 46.4% of pro-recovery site visitors also learned new techniques. Pro–eating disorder site users did not differ from nonusers in health outcomes but reported spending less time on school or schoolwork and had a longer duration of illness. Users of both pro–eating disorder and pro-recovery sites were hospitalized more than users of neither site.

Jenny L. Wilson, BAa, Rebecka Peebles, MDa, Kristina K. Hardy, PhDb and Iris F. Litt, MDa,c PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 6 December 2006, pp. e1635-e1643

Chapter 9

Drug Use and the Substance Related Disorders

Song of the Week Paper Thin by John Hiatt

I was gonna get up off that bar stoolJust as soon as I could figure it outWhy I was overlooked at the car poolStood up at the dance with no twist and shout

When you're burnin' with your last desireAnd every memory haunts youYou write it down in alcohol fire'Cause that's the only flame that wants you

CHORUS:When you're paper thinYeah, read all about itWhen you were out of luck, well, luck was doin' alrightNow you're paper thinYeah, they can see right through yaYou just cut you're little finger on the edge of the night

Now do I really have to be responsibleFor what I did between those tavern wallsI was just mixing up some chemicalsYou could've heard a pin drop, could have heard time crawl

And every once in a whileYou could hear you're own heart poundMaybe some paper doll with a pasted on smileWould let you write her number down

Substance Related Disorders in the News

Surge Seen in Number of Homeless VeteransNew York Times, United States - Nov 8, 2007

Denver Voters Set ‘Lowest Priority’ for Cops: PotNew York Times, United States - Nov 7, 2007

Binge Drinking (video)

Drug Use in Art and Life

Raymond Carver’s “Where I’m Calling From” (coursepack)

Chapter 10

Sex, Gender, and the Sexual Disorders

Song of the Week: When I Was A Boy by Dar Williams I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my hand

I said I was a boy; I'm glad he didn't check.I learned to fly, I learned to fightI lived a whole life in one nightWe saved each other's lives out on the pirate's deck.

And I remember that nightWhen I'm leaving a late night with some friendsAnd I hear somebody tell me it's not safe,someone should help meI need to find a nice man to walk me home.

When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom,Climbed what I could climb uponAnd I don't know how I survived,I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew.

And you can walk me home, but I was a boy, too.

I was a kid that you would like, just a small boy on her bikeRiding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw.My neighbor come outside to say, "Get your shirt,"I said "No way, it's the last time I'm not breaking any law."

And now I'm in this clothing store, and the signs say less is moreMore that's tight means more to see, more for them, not more for meThat can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat

When I Was A Boy, continued When I was a boy, See that picture? That was me

Grass-stained shirt and dusty kneesAnd I know things have gotta change,They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in,they've got implants to remove

But I am not forgetting...that I was a boy too

And like the woods where I would creep, it's a secret I can keepExcept when I'm tired, 'cept when I'm being caught off guardAnd I've had a lonesome awful day, the conversation finds its wayTo catching fire-flies out in the backyard.

And I so tell the man I'm with about the other life I livedAnd I say now you're top gun, I have lost and you have wonAnd he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see

When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talkedAnd I picked flowers everywhere that I walked.And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom doAnd I have lost some kindnessBut I was a girl too.And you were just like me, and I was just like you

Sex and Gender Disorders in the News Brazil: Free Sex-Change Operations THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 18, 2007

Brazil’s public health system will begin providing free gender-reassignment operations in compliance with a court order, the Health Ministry said. A panel of federal judges ruled that sexual reassignment surgery was covered under a constitutional clause guaranteeing medical care as a basic right. Brazil’s public health system offers free care to all Brazilians. The ministry said it would be up to local officials to decide who qualified for the surgery and what priority it would be given compared with other operations within the health system.

A 24-year-old New York City man remains jailed after he was found allegedly having sex with a 92-year-old woman's corpse inside the morgue of the hospital where he worked. Anthony Merino, who works as a lab technician at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J., was arrested Sunday after police responded to a call from a security guard at the hospital. The guard reported witnessing the lab technician sexually desecrating the woman's dead body, according to police. ABC News By DAVID SCHOETZ Oct. 30, 2007

Sex and Gender Disorders in Art and Life Renee Richards

Alfred Kinsey

Pedro Almodovar

Chapter 11

Personality and the Personality Disorders

Song of the Week – You’re So Vain by Carly Simon, performed by Jann Arden You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht

Your hat strategically dipped below one eyeYour scarf it was apricotYou had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotteAnd all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partnerThey'd be your partner, and...

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about youYou're so vain, i'll bet you think this song is about youDon't you? don't you?

You had me several years ago when i was still quite naiveWell you said that we made such a pretty pairAnd that you would never leaveBut you gave away the things you loved and one of them was meI had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffeeClouds in my coffee, and...

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffeeClouds in my coffee, and...Well i hear you went up to saratoga and your horse naturally wonThen you flew your lear jet up to nova scotiaTo see the total eclipse of the sunWell you're where you should be all the timeAnd when you're not you're withSome underworld spy or the wife of a close friendWife of a close friend, and...

Personality Disorders – Scientific Controversies and Core Concepts The construct validity of depressive personality disorder.

J Abnorm Psychol. 2003 Feb;112(1):49-60. McDermut, Zimmerman, & Chelminski .

This study examined the construct validity of depressive personality disorder (DPD: American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Adult psychiatric outpatients (N = 900) underwent comprehensive Axis I and II evaluations and provided data on 4,768 of their 1st-degree relatives. Despite modest overlap, DPD was not redundant with any Axis I or II disorder. Participants with DPD exhibited more Axis I and Axis II comorbidity, and greater psychosocial dysfunction, than participants without DPD. Relatives of participants with DPD had higher rates of mood disorders, alcohol abuse, and antisocial personality. Results are consistent with findings of several other similar investigations. The authors argue that DPD is a valid construct and should be conceptualized as a personality disorder as opposed to a mood disorder.

Personality Disorders in the News Experts Shy From Instant Diagnoses of Gunman’s Mental Illness, but Hints Abound By JOHN

SCHWARTZ and BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times April 20, 2007

The video testament that Cho Seung-Hui mailed to NBC during the intermission in his killing spree offers a compelling peek into the troubles that shaped a gunman, experts in forensic psychology say….

Dr. Michael Stone, an expert on personality disorders and killers, said in an interview that he saw in the videos “a paranoid person with sadistic traits, possibly psychotic.” These are people, he said, who might see conspiracies all around, and who have so little empathy that they “can do the most heinous things almost as if they were whittling wood….”

Mr. Cho’s taped rants, and his peers’ descriptions of him as a classmate, suggest a blend of severe and specific personality problems, said Dr. Theodore Millon, dean and scientific director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology in Coral Gables, Fla., who has designed testing questionnaires used in many colleges….

People with so-called avoidant personality disorder shun social situations because of a paralyzing dread of disapproval or criticism. Those with paranoid personality disorder nourish a deep distrust of others and see insults and malicious meanings in almost every interaction. Both are stubborn patterns of behavior that can begin in adolescence or earlier….”

Personality Disorders in Life and Art

Chapter 12

Psychosis and Schizophrenia

Song of the Week – Brain Damage by Pink Floyd The lunatic is on the grass

The lunatic is on the grassRemembering games and daisy chains and laughsGot to keep the loonies on the path

The lunatic is in the hallThe lunatics are in my hallThe paper holds their folded faces to the floorAnd every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soonAnd if there is no room upon the hillAnd if your head explodes with dark forebodings tooIll see you on the dark side of the moon

The lunatic is in my headThe lunatic is in my headYou raise the blade, you make the changeYou re-arrange me till Im saneYou lock the doorAnd throw away the keyThere’s someone in my head but its not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your earYou shout and no one seems to hearAnd if the band you’re in starts playing different tunesIll see you on the dark side of the moon

Schizophrenia in the News Fishy way to prevent schizophrenia ABC News online Thu Nov 29, 2007

Melbourne researchers say a daily dose of fish oil could prevent the onset of schizophrenia in high-risk youths. An international psychiatry conference has been told of an Orygen Research Centre study of 81 youths who'd previously suffered hallucinations or delusions. Lead researcher Professor Paul Amminger says 5% of those who were given omega-3 capsules went on to develop schizophrenia compared to almost a third who were given a placebo. "The key to efficacy of omega 3 is the early intervention so it seems it works much better in early stages when the disorder is not completely established." he said. "It's a risk reduction of about 7 times and I think that's very good news that a benign treatment is actually working as good or even better than anti-psychotics."

Schizophrenia in Life and Art

John Nash

Chapter 14

Stress, Psychophysiological Disorders, and Somatoform Disorders

Song of the Week – John Henry, arranged and performed by Snakefarm

(excerpt)

John Henry said to his Captain,

"A man ain't nothin' but a man,

And before I'll let your steam drill beat me down,

Die with the hammer in my hand,

Die with the hammer in my hand."

Parody of the Week: Modern-Day John Henry Dies Trying To Out-Spreadsheet Excel 11.0 February 27, 2006 | The Onion Issue 42•09

BALTIMORE—Office laborers across the nation are mourning the passing of Wallace Peters, 42, the mythic three-column accountant at Chesapeake & Ohio Consultants who pitted himself against Microsoft's latest version of the popular spreadsheet program Excel. Although Peters was able to balance his sheet a full 10 seconds before the program did, the man celebrated in song and story as the "cubicle worker's John Henry" was pronounced dead of a coronary thrombosis late Monday evening. The late Wallace “Wally” Peters, whom colleagues are calling a 21st-century John Henry

"He died with his pencil in his hand," shift supervisor Thomas Kaptein said. "Wally Peters was an accounting-driven man……"

Concluding Comments

Adapting to small classes

Possible pitfalls and solutions

Questions?

Thank you!

Contact info: jhansell@umich.edu 734-665-0840