Psychological Disorder
From the article, it is clear that Matej Čurko was suffering from a psychological disorder. According to Barlow and Durand (2011), a Psychological disorder is a pattern of behaviors that create distress for the individual experiencing the system and affects multiple areas of life. Comer (2013 gave a similar idea where he expressed that psychological disorders are clinically significant disturbance which have impacts on cognition and emotion regulation of the person experiencing them. Further, an individual with this disorder has behaviors that reflect psychological, developmental and biological dysfunctions underlying mental functioning.
The behavior of Matej Čurko reflects the violation of social norms. In the modern world, cannibalism is considered to be a criminal practice. In ancient days, there are some of the communities, which recognized cannibalism as a cultural practice. The world has changed, and this cultural practice has seized. The article reviews that Matej Čurko was not a social person. He resided in a small village that had few people. There were a lot of things, which he kept to himself. This is why the villages could not realize he was a cannibal. There is a possibility that Matej Čurko was suffering from personal distress, which is why he never enjoyed interacting with other villages.
The disorder had changed his thinking and behavior. To him, he thought that killing and eating people who wanted to commit suicide was helping them. This is an evidence of disability. Matej Čurko had unjustified beliefs. When he wanted to kill a person he specified how he wanted that individual to dress. A makeshift and a candle were discovered in his house which was an indication there were some rituals he might have been performing. The behavior had already addicted him, which is why he was continuously seeking for more victims on the internet. Addiction, which is dysfunction results to social, spiritual, biological and psychological manifestations.
Limitation of defining abnormality
There are several ways of defining abnormality. One way is classifing behaviors, which are statistically unusual as abnormal behaviors. However, the definition is criticized due it failure to recognize the undesirable and desirable behavior. Going by this definition, gifted people may be categorized as abnormal.
People are categorized as abnormal if they violate social norms. The limitation of this definition is social norms are changing with time. Barlow and Durand (2011) by summarizing the work of many others noted that behavior that was at one time normal can become unacceptable. The vice versa is true. Abnormal behavior with time can become acceptable.
Several studies suggest that people who do not function adequately are classified as abnormal. Among the traits, which define inadequate functioning are suffering, maladaptiveness, loss of control and unpredictability, causes of discomfort and incomprehensibility among others. The definition ignores that some of the abnormal behavior may be adaptive, function and helpful for the individual.
Anything that deviates from the ideal mental health is termed to be abnormal. The characteristics that define this deviation include accurate reality perception, positive relationship and friendships, environmental mastery and ,growth and development capability among others. However, the definition is criticized because it is practically difficult for any person to have all the traits of all the time. An individual can have one characteristic but lack the other one.
Assessment
Matej Čurko was suffering from a psychological disorder. It is would be necessary to perform a clinical assessment to Matej Čurko. This could have played a significant role in guiding health practitioners to understand his abnormal behaviors. A clinical assessment would help to determine why Matej Čurko was behaving abnormally. Further, it would evaluate how medical intervention can be done. According to the research conducted by Comer (2013), clinical assessment allows medical practitioners to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.
References
Barlow, D., & Durand, V. (2011). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach. Cengage
Learning.
Comer, R. J. (2013). Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology 7th edition. Worth Publishers.
