Topic: Diagnosis and Definition of Abnormality

Scenario

Molly felt like there were bugs crawling below her skin, and made multiple attempts to get others to take her medical symptoms seriously, but no one would. Her MD said there was no medical reason for the symptoms. Molly would scratch at the "bugs" and she tried to collect little black threads that she said came from under her skin and take them to a governmental lab to have them evaluated. In desperation, Molly even tried to cure the condition by spraying the broken skin with bug sprays, which led to a toxic reaction to the bug spray. Therefore, a psychiatrist admitted Molly into a psychiatric hospital on the basis of delusional behavior. Molly's husband petitioned the courts to take away their children, filed for divorce, and managed to take virtually all the community property.

First, please respond to the following, based on the scenario above:

• What do you think about Molly's condition and disorder?
• Who should define abnormality (base your answer on course material)?
• What motivatiNext, please take the time to read the Introduction section of the following article:

"Classification and Staging of Morgellons Disease: Lessons from Syphilis" (Middelveen et al. (2020)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7012249/

Then, please respond to the following:

• Now, what do you think about Molly, the client?
• What issues in diagnosis does this raise? What other psychological diagnoses does this information bring into question for you and why?ons might encourage various groups to seek to influence the definition of abnormality?