First published 2010
Psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi takes aim at his field's dominant framework, the biopsychosocial model that emerged from twentieth century psychosomatic medicine. He traces how George Engel and Roy Grinker Sr. developed this approach as an alternative to rigid medical models, connecting their work to earlier thinkers like William Osler and Karl Jaspers. Ghaemi demonstrates where the model falls short of its ambitious goals, arguing that psychiatry's embrace of eclecticism creates a paradox where practitioners, overwhelmed by too many options, retreat into their own rigid beliefs. He examines the philosophical foundations of mental illness concepts and the relationship between evidence-based medicine and psychiatric practice. The book makes a case for replacing the current paradigm with medical humanism and method-based psychiatry that honors both scientific rigor and the healing arts. Ghaemi contends that the biopsychosocial model served its purpose as a counter to biomedical reductionism but has outlived its usefulness, calling on his colleagues to adopt more focused, less eclectic approaches to understanding mental health.
Genres: psychology, medical, non-fiction, biography-memoir, psychiatry, history-of-medicine, academic
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic, medical-professionals
Period: 20th Century
272 pages · Hardcover · Johns Hopkins University Press