What is Psychopathology of Daily Life?

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What do you mean by psychopathology of everyday life? Does it mean something which can be represented as the center of the thought and behavior evened out by the rule of averages? It resides somewhere in the middle of a continuum of being normal and being pathological.

Now arises the question, what is normal and what is Pathological?

DSM IV i.e. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual from American Psychiatric Association (APA) notes that “Pathological represent maladaptive variants of personality traits which mingles well with normality and still stand out in one’s behavior in the form Personality Disorder.

In differentiating abnormal behavior from normal one, we have to leave some room for personality differences. Since all of us are not the same, the specified behavior such as being introvert, or even being cunning, is more in the form of disorder in some than it is as compared to others. It is also important to distinguish abnormal behavior from behavior that looks abnormal but is normal, because under the circumstances it is both predictable and universal. Aren’t the things depending on the situation and this is what makes it normal or abnormal. To a significant level, this is the case, but there are definite abnormalities in some of the unfortunate cases.

Being Normal, Abnormal and Semi Normal

Generally speaking, very few individuals look explicitly abnormal. The majority of these abnormal people that we run across in our daily walks of life are suffering from mild psychopathology, making them semi normal. In the case of psychopaths, semi normal or mild psychopaths have to be differentiated on the one hand from normal individuals who are merely somewhat morally challenged and on the other hand from individuals suffering from severe psychopathy who have a some form of antisocial personality disorder.

Negative thoughts and behaviors such as selfishness prevail over positive ones such as caution, honesty, and altruism. These so called semi normal individuals do make waves, ruffle feathers, and call significant attention to them.

How to define Psychopathy

One can define psychopathy according to its core dynamics – the presence of antisocial behavior generally in the presence of a relative or absolute absence of anxiety and guilt and an inability to parted always with no experience of remorse at all whatsoever. It also has a incapacity for feeling empathy.

Another disadvantage of using behavioral criteria to define psychopathy is that actual psychopathic behavior is often hidden. After all, these are individuals who are famously untruthful. They also know how to manipulate mental health professionals, and the entire system, to create the impression that they behave well, or that, if they behave negatively, that their bad behavior is justified by circumstances.