The medical (biological) model is the dominant view of mental disorder in Western society. The basic idea is that mental disorders are rooted in physical problems and that they require physical treatments to alleviate them.
To make sense of this we must bear in mind that psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors first. All medical doctors, from General Practitioners to anaesthetists and gynaecologists have been trained to treat physical disorders with physical interventions such as medications and surgery. Psychiatrists come from the same basic perspective and psychiatry itself has developed from that same, physical root.
So, according to the biological (medical) model of mental disorder all psychiatric problems are caused by physical imbalances or abnormalities. That’s why psychological problems get physiological treatments such as medications (chemicals used to change physical processes) or even surgery.
It is important to say that most psychiatrists in practice today see the medical model as only a partial explanation for mental disorder.
While I agree with the principle of multi-dimensional stressors, I disagree with the conclusion, at least in my case. Reducing the cause of stress can’t deal with all the problem stress has created in the first place. In deficit schizophrenia, one can no longer perceive stress !! I live in a very supportive environment, I am not subject to social, psychological stress, or self-blaming thought. Yet I cannot recover. It’s simply biological. So in my case, the solution seems to rely solely on a medical intervention. This is not just my own analysis. I’ve read somewhere that deficit schizophrenics did not respond positively to psychotherapy or social interventions. So there you have it. We need new medications !!
I’m saying this because my parents want me to undergo some therapy sessions, even though I explained them in no uncertain terms that it won’t help me at all. But they still insist…
There are those who strongly argue for the medical or social model. Personally I am a strong believer in the stress vulnerability model which incorporates both.
Not necessarily though some support that position. For me it’s a combination of factors in most cases. I discount neither biological or social factors.
There’s a difference between trigger and causality, it’s all I’m saying. We shouldn’t rule out the medical model just because we don’t like the idea of it. Social and stress models are too vague, there can be stress from social situations, and stress that causes social constraint.
That’s how I interpret stress vulnerability - that biological responses to environmental stressors can expose or activate an underlying biological vulnerability. Helps explain why people with similar genetic structures present so differently.
