False Assumptions about Psychopathology, Hysteria and the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical Scales

Abstract

The MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical scales rest on the common behavioral assumption that consistent items can be added to assess all psychopathologies. This may be the case for some unitary symptoms such as anxiety or anger, but not for complex diagnostic conditions such as Hysteria, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. These are better understood with a psychodynamic formulation. Psychodynamic theory assumes that internal conflicts and contradictions are a significant feature of many psychopathologies. For example, the new MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical scales eliminated a measure of hysteria. The RC3 Cynicism scale is not an improvement over the MMPI-2 Hysteria scale, as the new scale serves as an example of a failure of the behaviorism to account for complex psychopathology. Making scales more internally consistent and distinct from each other has not produced more external validity and useful measures for many of the psychopathologies found in clinical practice.

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