The rise and fall of the biopsychosocial model
Subtitle: eclectic psychiatry examined
By: S. Nassir Ghaemi.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
ISBN-13: 9780801893902
Subjects: Eclectic psychotherapy; Biological psychiatry; Social psychiatry; Psychiatry -- methods; Mental Disorders -- therapy; Models, Biological; Models, Psychological; Psychological Theory
Description: "This is the first book-length historical critique of psychiatry's mainstream ideology, the biopsychosocial (BPS) model.

Developed in the twentieth century as an outgrowth of psychosomatic medicine, the biopsychosocial model is seen as an antidote to the constraints of the medical model of psychiatry. Nassir Ghaemi details the origins and evolution of the BPS model and explains how, where, and why it fails to live up to its promises. He analyzes the works of its founders, George Engel and Roy Grinker Sr., traces its rise in acceptance, and discusses its relation to the thought of William Osler and Karl Jaspers.

In assessing the biopsychosocial model, Ghaemi provides a philosophically grounded evaluation of the concept of mental illness and the relation between evidence -based medicine and psychiatry. He argues that psychiatry's conceptual core is eclecticism, which in the face of too much freedom paradoxically leads many of its adherents to enact their own dogmas. Throughout, he makes the case for a new paradigm of medical humanism and method -based psychiatry that is consistent with modern science while incorporating humanistic aspects of the art of medicine."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The perils of open-mindedness : Adolf Meyer's psychobiology; title: So many theories, so little time : the rise of eclecticism; title: Riding madly in all directions : Roy Grinker's "struggle for eclecticism"; title: A new model of medicine : George Engel's biopsychosocial model; title: Before and after : precursors and followers of the biopsychosocial model; title: Cease-fire : ending the psychiatric civil war; title: Drowning in data; title: Teaching eclecticism; title: Psychopharmacology awry; title: The vagaries of the real world; title: The limits of evidence-based medicine; title: Osler's ghost; title: The two cultures; title: Between science and the humanities; title: The meaning of meaning : verstehen explained; title: The beginning of a solution; title: A new psychiatric humanism.