Despite considerable progress in clinical and basic neurosciences, the cure of psychiatric disorders is still remote, little is known about their prevention, and the etiology and molecular mechanisms of mental disorders are still obscure. Diagnoses are still guided by patients' stories. The mission of animal models is to bridge the gap between `the story and the synapse.' Contemporary Issues in Modeling of Psychopathology attempts to do this by examining such questions as `What good might come from such a model? Are we wasting our time? How far can we carry results from model animals, such as rats and mice, without causing a highly distorted view of the field and its goals?' This book serves as the opening volume for a new series, Neurobiological Foundation of Aberrant Behaviors.

Recently, there has been a renewal of interest in the broad and loosely bounded range of phenomena called deception and self-deception. This volume addresses this interest shared by philosophers, social and clinical psychologists, and more recently, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors provide timely, reliable, and insightful coverage of the normal range of errors in perception, memory, and behavior. They place these phenomena on a continuum with various syndromes and neuropsychiatric diseases where falsehood in perception, self-perception, cognition, and behaviors are a peculiar sign. Leading authorities examine the various forms of "mythomania," deception, and self-deception ranging from the mundane to the bizarre such as imposture, confabulations, minimization of symptomatology, denial, and anosognosia. Although the many diverse phenomena discussed here share a family resemblance, they are unlikely to have a common neurological machinery. In order to reach an explanation for these phenomena, a reliable pattern of lawful behavior must be delineated. It would then be possible to develop reasonable explanations based upon the underlying neurobiological processes that give rise to deficiencies designated as the mythomanias. The chapters herein begin to provide an outline of such a development. Taken as a whole, the collection is consistent with the emerging gospel indicating that neither the machinery of "nature" nor the forces of "nurture" taken alone are capable of explaining what makes cognition and behaviors aberrant.

Despite considerable progress in clinical and basic neurosciences, the cure of psychiatric disorders is still remote, little is known about their prevention, and the etiology and molecular mechanisms of mental disorders are still obscure. Diagnoses are still guided by patients' stories. The mission of animal models is to bridge the gap between the story and the synapse.' Contemporary Issues in Modeling of Psychopathology attempts to do this by examining such questions as What good might come from such a model? Are we wasting our time? How far can we carry results from model animals, such as rats and mice, without causing a highly distorted view of the field and its goals?' This book serves as the opening volume for a new series, Neurobiological Foundation of Aberrant Behaviors.