The Rise and Fall of the Biopsychosocial Model: Reconciling Art and Science in Psychiatry - Paperback

by S. Nassir Ghaemi (Author)

2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

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.

Ghaemi shows how the historical role of the BPS model as a reaction to biomedical reductionism is coming to an end and urges colleagues in the field to embrace other, less-eclectic perspectives.

Front Jacket

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

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. In this critique of psychiatry's mainstream ideology, S. 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 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.

Impassioned and thoughtful . . . Ghaemi has produced both a penetrating analysis of the ascent of the biopsychosocial model as a psychiatric theory-of-everything and a weapon designed to bring about its decline.--Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

Ghaemi's grasp is wide. His book will be as much disturbing as satisfying but will provide the reader a sense of where our field has been and where it may need to go.--American Journal of Psychiatry

A thoughtful and well-researched book. At minimum, it is an essential read for academic psychiatrists and residents involved in teaching and learning. More broadly, it is a good read for anyone interested in the historical and philosophical aspects of psychiatric theories.--Psychiatric Times

--Victor A. Colotla "PsycCRITIQUES"

Back Jacket

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

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. In this critique of psychiatry's mainstream ideology, S. 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 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.

"Impassioned and thoughtful . . . Ghaemi has produced both a penetrating analysis of the ascent of the biopsychosocial model as a psychiatric theory-of-everything and a weapon designed to bring about its decline."--Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

"Ghaemi's grasp is wide. His book will be as much disturbing as satisfying but will provide the reader a sense of where our field has been and where it may need to go."--American Journal of Psychiatry

"A thoughtful and well-researched book. At minimum, it is an essential read for academic psychiatrists and residents involved in teaching and learning. More broadly, it is a good read for anyone interested in the historical and philosophical aspects of psychiatric theories."--Psychiatric Times

Author Biography

S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and director of the Mood Disorders Program at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He also serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. He has written several books including Mood Disorders: A Practical Guide; A Clinician's Guide to Statistics and Epidemiology in Mental Health: Measuring Truth and Uncertainty; A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness; and The Concepts of Psychiatry: A Pluralistic Approach to the Mind and Mental Illness, the last also published by Johns Hopkins.