Explaining Abnormal Behaviour

Defining abnormal behaviour is a complex task. The same is true of the problem of explaining abnormal behaviour--that is identifying it's cause . Since antiquity, Western society  has developed a number of theories of abnormal behaviour. Not only are there different theories for different kinds of abnormality; there are alsok in many cases, competing theories for the same abnormality, whether or not it even is an abnormality--and for the entire problem of abnormal behaviour. These various explanations have a common base in that are all naturalistid. That is, in keeping with a secular and scientific age, they seek to account for abnormal behaviour in terms of natural events--disturbances in the body or disturbances in human relationships. Beyond this, however, they differ considerably.