Implications of the medical model and its alternatives

A distinction should be maintained between the virtues of these models as conceptual aids and their virtues and weakness as shapers of public opinion and professional practice.

Abstract

The term "medical model" is often used as if it referred to a single, well-understood set of assumptions about psychiatric disorders. Actually, there are at least four different meanings that a person saying "emotional disorders are diseases" might intend to communicate. The models usually suggested as alternatives are addressed to one or another of these medical model implications. A distinction should be maintained between the virtues of these models as conceptual aids and their virtues and weakness as shapers of public opinion and professional practice.