CRJ-322 CRIMINAL MIND CASE STUDY 5

Mental Disorders 1































Mental Disorders
Strayer University
Felicia McCaw
Professor Idonia K. Barrett
CRJ322
Online Summer 2017
September 7, 2017
Mental Disorders 2
Mental Disorders

In the examining of mental disorders is the query of what exactly does it entail? Under dispute is whether mental disorders occur or arise due to physical causes or perhaps environmental causes. Affective and revealing to the mental state would be apparent inappropriate displays of unusual behavior that would conclusively include bizarre acts. In a societal perspective and by some psychiatrist the disorder is looked at as an inability to function as well as the populace who are not suffering a mental disorder that can be likened to “problems in living”. But reflectively, it is classed as a medical problem that is tantamount and real as a physical ailment.
There is a predisposition to ruminate on the peculiarities and intricacies of what can be done to correctly apply a correct label to distinguish what medical diagnosis can be attributed to a client who has significant oddities that are of a suspicious nature. Therefore, the terminology of mental illness has been replaced by the term of mental disorders and by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and a medical model or psychiatric approach is used to determine ailment or illness that a person is suffering. Further the DSM-IV uses a correlation of identifiers of a possible disorder to pinpoint and attribute the correct name of the disorder that is prevalent. Consequently, the identifiers based on the manual would determine that the characteristics present would lean in the direction of determining the disorder that is being exhibited.
The field of psychiatry classifies mental disorders into two types: derived from organic causes and derived from function, or nonorganic, disorders. Also, implications indicate that an organic cause is a factor that cause mental disorders whereas heredity, physiological disorders, other
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organic deficiencies arise because of an organic cause. Inclusive is minor disorders, maniac-depressive behavior, paranoid behavior, schizophrenia and others. Three key similarities between mental illness and mental disorders are they can range from low impact to high impact, some illnesses require constant care, some need less care and the composition of the illness itself.
Mental illnesses range from different types and degrees of severity with severe psychiatric disorders in the lowest social class. As per the U.S. Surgeon General’s (1999) report: “Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning”.(p.5) Three key differences between a mental illness and mental disorder need a disorder to be classified as a dysfunction, assigned in the DSM-IV Manuel, and lastly reflect a behavioral or mental pattern. Mental illness affects your mood, thinking and behavior. Functional mental disorders function to adjust individuals to their particular difficulty but have no conclusive evidence that they arrive from organic causes but have latitude to suggest that heredity, physiological disorder and other organic deficiencies may exist. In comparison, minor disorders cannot be reliably predicted but show up as neuroses which can be called obsessions, persistent fears, acts or situation. Lastly, manic-depressive behavior consists of attitude swings ranging from extreme elation to extreme depression. In relation to Adam, the only disorder that may also apply would be functional mental disorder which occurs in his autistic state.
Therefore, the term disorder is used to imply and associate a clinically set of behavioral symptoms associated with the distress and personal functions. In the case of Adam P. Lanza, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on April 22, 1992 to the parents of Nancy and Peter Lanza and
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with one brother Ryan six years his senior. Adam was 16 years old when his parents divorced in 2008. Adam was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome which is a type of autism and generally manifests without extreme mental disabilities. The main characteristics are inclusive of poor social skills, lacking nonverbal communication, and being clumsy. Also, inability to develop friendships, selective mutism, inability to emphathize, unable to make eye contact, social awkwardness, narrowed interests, sticking to routine, literal interpretations, excellent pattern recognition and poor motor skills.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza is believed to have shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the head at her home in Newton, Connecticut around 9:00 a.m. and proceeded five miles to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Adam shot and killed 20 first-graders (14 students in one classroom and six in another classroom) and six adult workers, two teachers who were shot and survived and then shot himself in the head around 9:50 a.m. after firing 50 to 100 shots. During investigations of Adam Lanza’s home found was numerous weapons, ammunition, and books and articles on mass killings but there was no indication of what caused a fixation and target on Sandy Hook Elementary School and the children, teachers and adults there.
Adam had a fixation and obsession with playing violent video games and played for hours and hours and obliterated the victims in the games instead of the villains. Reported is that he was always silent and uncommunicative and that his mother always spoke for him. In 1972, the Surgeon General issued the following warning on violent TV programs: "It is clear to me that the causal relationship between televised violence and antisocial behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and immediate remedial action. … There comes a time when the data are sufficient to justify action.
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That time has come." (Steinfeld, 1972). Based on this warning is the perception that Adam has assimilated a persona that he could relate to in his own world but because he is autistic the inability to relay that the innocent or victims are not an enemy but a friend and that the true villain is the enemy is present. In further explanation when violence becomes a natural instinct and the displacement of anger is fueled by obliterating a neutral target then the anger recedes and becomes a content when the anger is satisfied.
Because Adam has a lack of emphathetic skills and literal interpretation is faulty and has severe inability to voice understanding or conception. It is possible that an overstimulation of the amygdala occurred and this with the obsession caused a fight or flight response that when paralleled to the actions done in video games caused a seek a quarry and as personified in the games the victims were probably women, children and non-threatening adults. Parallel with his diagnosis and overstimulation and inability to interpret right or wrong this allowed an acting out of his fantasy because of his studying of mass murders and learning to kill by playing video games and continuing level by level with positive reinforcement.
Backtracking to behavior and the definition of what is normative or abnormal is as follow: (1) The motivation of the behavior affects this distinction, perhaps separating normal hand washing from a neurotic washing compulsion, (2) The situation in which the behavior occurs also influences the judgment, for example, distinguishing appearing dressed only in swimming trunks on an Alaskan street in winter versus the same dress on a sunny California beach, (3) Who makes the judgment – experts, such as qualified psychiatrists, or the general public – also affects the clinical classification of abnormal behavior (Clinard, Meier, 2010). As noted Adam had an obsessive
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compulsion of washing his hands repeatedly and changing his clothing frequently throughout the day and bathing repeatedly as well. He was prescribed Celexa by Koenig which is an antidepressant in a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and it is used to treat depression. As cautioned the drugs is to be prescribed to people aged 18 years and older and has a warning if mood or behavior changes, anxiety, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, impulsive, irritable, agitated, hostile, aggressive, restless, hyperactive (mentally or physically) (Celexa, 2017). Adam was removed off the medicine by his Mother (Nancy) because she stated that Adam was unable to lift his arm.
Because Adam was autistic of the four general theoretical perspectives utilized to examine a mental disorder the second perspective may support that the disorder exhibited may have been nurtured by conditioning or learning experiences (Clinard, Meier, 2010). The stigma attached to either mental illness or to a mental disorder also carries a consequence of negative reaction and becomes a label and affects possible interpersonal relationships and anxiety levels. The levels of bias are associated with social disapproval, prejudice, stereotyping and distrust and because 25% of people are affected with mental illness those burdened are neglected, stigmatized and treated in a punitive fashion. Because Adam was diagnosed at a young age with mental illness one action that could have been done is possible behavior therapy which would include attempts to channel the aggressive behavior into a more positive direction. The process of imagery and concept would be an attempt to change the inception of what the image means and transfer the assimilated and alter the purpose and reroute a directional pattern. Further because functional mental disorders can be altered to act as a bridge then possibly the behavior itself could be changed even in an autistic state along with medication and close scrutiny if Adam Lanza had lived.
References
Clinard, M. B., & Meier, R. F. (2016). Sociology of deviant behavior. Boston, MA, USA: Cengage Learning.

Types of mental illness, (2009, April 28). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/mentalhealth/about_mental_illness/types_of_mental_illness

Mental Illness: Learn the Definition, Tests and Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from http://www.medicinenet.com/mental_illness/page2.htm

10 Symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome: Know the Signs. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
http://www.activebeat.com/your-health/10-symptoms-of-aspergers-syndrome/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=AB_BNG_US_DESK-SearchMarketing&utm_content=o_c_73461176489677&cus_widget=kwd-73461124621776&utm_term=aspergers syndrome

Adam Lanza. (2016, June 13). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
https://www.biography.com/people/adam-lanza-21068899

Celexa Uses, Dosage & Side Effects. (2017, February 01). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
https://www.drugs.com/celexa

Bolton, D, (2001). Problems in the Definition of ‘Mental Disorder’. Philosopical
Quarterly. 51(203). 182

Neurosis. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/n/neurosis/intro.htm

Neurosis. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/neuroses

(n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170828105358.htm

(p. 191) Functional mental illness. (2014, November 26). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from http://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780199593637.001.0001/med-9780199593637-chapter-015

Fournis, G., & Abou, N. N. (2014). Violence, Crime, and Violent Video Game: Is
There a Correlation? Psychiatric Times, 31(9), 1-4

Robb, J., & Stone, J. (2016). Implicit Bias toward People with Mental Illness: A
Systematic Literature Review, Journal Of Rehabilitation, 82(4), 3-13

References
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Yeh, M.A., Jewell, R.D., & Thomas, V.L. (2017). The Stigma of Mental Illness:
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Varga, S. (2011). Defining mental disorder. Exploring the ‘natural function’ approach.
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5341-6-1

Newtown shooting: Adam Lanza's Psychiatric Treatment Revealed In Documents. (2013, December 28). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from http://articles.courant.com/2013-12-28/news/hc-lanza-sandy-hook-report1228-20131227_1_peter-lanza-adam-lanza-nancy-lanza