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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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Exploring the Symptom Pool and Culturally Bound Communication Strategies

02:00 • 3min

Unintended Consequences of Awareness Campaigns on Mental Health Disorders

05:23 • 3min

Exploring the Influence of Doctors and Social Status on Anorexia Nervosa

08:00 • 2min

Exploring the Influence of Secondary Gain and Unconscious Behavior in Mental Illness Spread

09:55 • 2min

The symptom pool is probably the single most important concept with respect to understanding mental illness. In short, the symptom pool is a culturally-bound collection of behavioral signals that can be used to communicate various degrees of distress. These signals are unconsciously added to the pool at the population level, and they are unconsciously manifested from the pool at the individual level. In this episode, I cite an example of how this might look from Ethan Watters's "Crazy like us".

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Presented by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. PsycHacks provides viewers with a brief, thought-provoking video several days a week on a variety of psychological topics, inspired by his clinical practice. The intention is for the core idea contained within each video to inspire viewers to see something about themselves or their world in a slightly different light. The ultimate mission of the channel is to reduce the amount of unnecessary suffering in the world.

#psychology #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness