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VanLinden 1
Kyle VanLinden
Mr. Tovar
Senior Research Paper
11/23/11
Medicine within the Minds of Psychology
In ancient times, psychologists were simply witch doctors or soothsayers who gave out
salves and blessings to cure the mind. Psychologists in the modern age are to be considered
lifesavers through the use of therapies and medication to help patients to go back to the original
balance of their bodies. They use various methods but there have always been two that stand at
the top. The first, therapy sessions, are perhaps the most common and well known. In therapy
sessions the psychologist and the patient talk and confer about issues in their lives or in their
pasts to help the troubled move forward to a better future. The other is Medicinal therapy, an
application of medicine within the field of psychology to hide or remove negative symptoms.
Both show results in healing the patient, but the biggest addition to the field of psychology is the
movement of psychologists who combine the methods to maintain all progress done in therapy.
Behavioral Therapy is used to modify destructive behaviors to save a person, usually from
himself or herself. This form of therapy usually is based upon human interactions but is almost
always supplemented with medicinal aides (Ollendick). Medical side effects are the largest fear
for practicing psychologists, for they believe it will disrupt their therapy sessions. The use of one
but not the other takes away from the main solution of the problem. Thus to achieve good health
they require one to balance and fix the other (APA). The American Psychology Association
states this in order to display their support of the intertwining methods in the field of mental
study. If there is no balance for the therapist then there will be no final result to the patient with
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positive side effects. The psychology community, due to the egotistical beliefs of some,
generally shuns the use of medicinal therapy within psychology. However, in order to help
patients, medical treatments must be introduced to help heal the mind.
Psychologists must review their personal beliefs and make sure that they do not hamper
their clients; if they do not remove their prejudice then they are stuck thinking in a selfish
manner that can generate more issues for the client. When the personal mindset enters the
professional mindset, it becomes counterintuitive to continue. Human beings are machines of
conflict, as best said by Erich Fromm “Man is the only animal for which whom his own
existence is a problem which he has to solve” (Fromm). As a problem, humans pose many
different ways to mess up the flow of reality, and perhaps the worst way is through opinions.
Opinions are protected by freedom of speech but psychologists forsake that freedom when they
join their field. They now must monitor themselves to react in the best way possible to situations
presented to them. If their personal feelings come into play, then the progress they hope to
achieve in their sessions is never accomplished. If one psychologist does not believe in the use of
medicine in psychology and does not prescribe a schizophrenic with an antipsychotic, then put
bluntly, the schizophrenic will end up dying. It is not a question of if they will but when they
will. Without antipsychotics, schizophrenics show one of the highest suicide rates than any other
form of mental illness, second only to depression. When the choices one makes affect others in a
life threatening way, then they must take up the responsibility to put aside their own convictions
to save lives and keep them sane so they can live to see the next day.
Medicine in psychology has solved the problems of patients and created a field in which
progression is the key to saving lives. Panic Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by
recurring severe panic attacks which symptoms include, shortness of breath, chest pains, fainting
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and sometimes heart attacks. People who suffered from panic disorders had no way to help stop
the episodes until a medicine was made called Xanax. Xanax promotes the release of a relaxing
chemical from receptors inside the brain to generate a calming effect in the patient. With the
introduction of Xanax, psychologists were able to save the lives of the patients who suffered
from Panic Disorder. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in which the patient displays a
disintegration of the mental thought processes and the ability to control different centers of the
brain. Serentil was introduced in 1998 as a medicine to help combat the effects of Schizophrenia
(Fancher). The chemical structure of the drug aides in stopping imbalance within the cerebrum.
This medicine helped to saved millions of people’s lives, which were believed to be otherwise
hopeless. These results clearly show the benefits to using medicine in cooperation with
psychology, especially with the field of medicine ever changing. When times change it is on the
professionals’ shoulder to grow with the times to secure their patients welfare. The future is not
merely a choice they can make; if a psychologist falls behind in their field they can become a
serious health threat to their patients.4
Therapists who move forward with the times and maintain openness to progress have a
better success at healing their patients than the therapists who use outdated methods. There are
those who remain fully faithful even when there is no longer any support to their ideas claim, just
like their defiance of using medicine in psychology. In a human study done at Cambridge
University, a student formed a principle to display the way a human being learns however a
psychologist named James Griffith stated, “ …there is very little direct empirical support for the
Uncertainty Principle” (Griffith). The Uncertainty Principle in psychology is meant to describe
the effects of the brain’s attention and its reactions to cues from any source. The Uncertainty
Principle has no bias and generates many questions from other psychologists as to how it can be
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taught or enforced if there is no supporting data. By psychologists believing claims that lack any
evidence they are damaging the integrity of the science behind the field. Hanna Kley, a child
psychologist, demonstrates the progressive beliefs that will revolutionize the way patients can be
aided. “Treatment strategies aimed at reducing inappropriate attention focus may be beneficial to
patients who suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder, medicine may be used to appropriate certain
side effects” (Kley). Progress is the reason why the field must change, but the biggest argument
winner is the results from the use of these new therapies. A traditional concept of psychology is
nothing more than stubborn reactivity to new influence and change within a field that is built
upon growth. It needs to be a progressive study that is aided by many organizations to ensure
support and quality are never forsaken so the patient is always given the best treatment.
Psychiatric drugs need to have government support to maintain use and effectiveness
within the field. One of the most harmful things to the field of psychology is the lack of
medicinal options. In 2009 Dr. John Grohol determined, “The biggest declines we see are drugs
that have gone off-patent, including Wellbutrin (a decline of 73 percent in prescriptions) and
Paxil (which didn’t even make it on this year’s list)” (Grohol). Through this study, Dr. Grohol is
able to clearly display how the lack of government security in psychiatric medicines directly
affects the amount and use of medicine inside the field. When the government helps support a
product, the product generally does much better for itself. In addition the government would then
be aiding in the spreading the use of medicine in psychology through accessibility and a cheaper
cost. This promotes the use of medicinal treatments and thus gives patients a better chance at
succeeding at their goals or at becoming a better-balanced individual to maintain a healthy and
non-destructive lifestyle. The conflict with using medicine in a field dominated by the mind were
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foreseen by many but none were as famous as Freud or Jung, both had ideas on medicine that
would help a patient overcome their disabilities and move to become better individuals for them.
Many psychologists knew of the controversy of medicine in psychology before it became
a moral dilemma, so they should have set the example for others inside the field and moved to
make medicine a major part of psychology. Freud mentions the delusional nature of his patients
and studies sometimes in his books. Freud believed that this is the result of the drug’s
interference with the mind. It leads to clouding of true problems and their source. If the source is
hidden from the therapist than there will be no progress, and no solution. This is a fear of many
psychologists, however, some may not be treated without medicinal aide with their cognitive
thought process. Medicine is never meant to hamper the patient but to help them through their
body’s struggle with symptoms of deficiencies. Carl Jung’s concepts on psychology were beliefs
of a unified mind and his beliefs were medicine could help push the world to a better concept of
mental unity and understanding. “Without individuality we would all become one mind and one
person, never moving forward” (Jung). Humans must strive to further the world through the
process of learning instead of remaining in the past and not viewing the future for what it is. Jung
and Freud propose different ideas and concepts about the introduction of medicine in the field of
psychology, but they were both ahead of their time. Since they were advanced they were able to
detect future problems as such, current psychologists should move away from trying to debate
about the ethics of medicinal treatment and push into the future of the field. It is individuals who
choose to view the future as an asset instead of a hindrance, who will change the way people are
healed.
Lack of information causes many fears in the public, especially when dealing with
medication, when all they need is to be informed by the psychologist of the options they have in
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their therapy. Medicines, mainly antipsychotics, do things to the users mind and the patients are
worried about how that will affect themselves in day to day life, with their family or simply if it
will make themselves different from their normal selves. The key point to bring up is people
should always have the option of medication. If psychologists do not offer it and the patient
wishes to be medicated, then the psychologist is not truly helping the patient. When
psychologists talk about the prescription to the patient they talk about how it works and why it
will work for them. This is not always true as sometimes psychologists medicate the unwilling,
which is unsafe and unfair to the patient. Certain patients need medication to be lucid but it
remains their choice to take medication or not, based upon their threat to others and themselves.
Psychologists cannot take matters into their own hands by not prescribing medication without
telling a client the options they have for survival or just their healing process. Medicine helps
those who take it to understand them and move forward in solving their problems, thus it is the
patient who needs to view their options to attempt to see the best way they can help themselves.
The psychologist should be the one to provide all options and suggest the best routes and least
effective ones but if a solution cannot be found then it is on the psychologist to help them in his
or her way. It is the patients body, but in occasions where the therapists notices little or no
progress or the patient is harming themselves or others then a therapist has the right to medicate
and help solve the clients destructive behaviors to better them. A therapist is not doing his or her
job if a person is inflicting pain upon another or themselves and it can be treated by medication
or stronger therapy. A patient who is lucid has an extraordinarily high chance of pushing past to
progress; sometimes medication is just needed to bring them into the real world.
Medicinal solutions in psychology are heavily scrutinized but, despite the critiques of the
process, they will push the way people heal patients into the future and solve problems that were
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otherwise thought to be permanent. Conflict will always be present, but the key concept is for the
field of psychology to move past it, regardless of the troubles that lie ahead. The main conflict in
psychology with using medicine is the ethics of the field and how controlling it can or cannot be.
Ethics within psychology is always under the magnifying glass but the treatments and therapies
done almost always succeed for the good of the troubled. The best way to solve a problem is to
work through the pain or scars and fight to the root of one’s problems but sometimes this
requires aide. Future pain can be solved through the moral choice to aid those who are in need
and hurting. It is always morally right to help someone through their pain to save them. Many
people argue that by bringing up the hurt of one’s past can cause trauma to the person but if
everyone was to ignore problems to avoid conflict the world would never progress or solve its
issues. To move forward people must be willing to support the change in the world, and with it,
the aide it brings to society. “Psychiatry is a profession and, like all professions, comprises a set
of specific skills and knowledge that are applied for the ‘common good’ of society” (Robertson).
Robertson knew the potential that psychiatry and psychology had for helping the world; now
others in the field must view it in the same light to heal the people.
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Works Citied
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Cowgil, Charles. "Psychology History." Welcome to Muskingum University. Web. 09 Sept. 2011.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Print.
Geller, Sherri M. "Therapeutic Presence: A Mindful Approach to Effective Therapy." American
Psychological Association (APA). Web. 08 Sept. 2011.
Health Psychology and A.D.D. Institute. Web. 08 Sept. 2011.
Johnson, George. "Cancer's Secrets Come Into Sharper Focus." The New York Times. 15 Aug.
2011. Print.
Ollendick, Thomas, ed. "Behavior Therapy." Behavior Therapy 42.11 (2011): 349-546. Print.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "NIMH · Mental Health Medications." NIMH ·
Home. Web. 09 Sept. 2011.