Colin Deyoung || Rethinking Mental Illness

Today it’s great to have Colin DeYoung on the podcast. Dr. DeYoung is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Minnesota and the director of the Personality, Individual Differences and Behavioral Genetics program. He researches the structures and sources of psychological traits using neuroscience methods to investigate their biological substrates. He developed a general theory of personality: Cybernetic Big Five Theory which identifies psychological functions associated with major personality traits as well as their connection to other elements of personality and various life outcomes including mental illness.

Topics

Definitions of mental illness
The problem with DSM-5’s diagnostic categories
The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)
What is cybernetics?
A Cybernetic Theory of Psychopathology
How Colin’s theory differs from abnormal psychology
Differences between mental disorder and psychopathology
Characteristic adaptations and personality traits
Moving towards a dimensional model of psychopathology
What qualifies as cybernetic dysfunction?
Narcissism, anti-social behavior, and successful psychopaths
Legal interventions for risky profiles without stigmatization
The need for non-pharmacological interventions

Resources

A Cybernetic Theory of Psychopathology [pdf]

Understanding Psychopathology: Cybernetics and Psychology on the Boundary between Order and Chaos [pdf]

A cybernetic perspective on the nature of psychopathology: Transcending conceptions of mental illness as statistical deviance and brain disease [pdf]

About the guest

Colin DeYoung

Podcast Guest

Colin G. DeYoung is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research is in the field of personality psychology and personality neuroscience.

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Colin Deyoung || Rethinking Mental Illness

Colin DeYoung

11 years ofhuman possibility

11 years of
human possibility