PsycHacks Episode 367: Understanding the symptom pool (how the world goes mad)
Oct 13, 2023
Exploring the concept of the symptom pool in mental illness, understanding culturally-bound communication signals of distress, unintended consequences of awareness campaigns on anorexia, and how social status and secondary gain can influence the spread of mental illness.
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How Suffering Needs To Be Seen
- People in deep internal suffering need to communicate that pain in ways others can perceive.
- Verbal descriptions often fail because the manner of speaking overrides the content.
Prioritize How Over What
- People trust the
Titrating Deviance To Signal Need
- Communicating distress requires calibrated deviation from social norms to get appropriate care.
- These calibrated signals form part of a cultural 'symptom pool' that evolves over time.