Specifying the best conception of the biopsychosocial model
‘Specifying the best conception of the biopsychosocial model’ builds on the themes developed in this volume by detailing the relationship between the biopsychosocial model and the aetiology, treatment, nosology, and constitution of mental disorders. It argues that, for the foreseeable future, we should expect all mental disorders to be caused by a conjunction of biological, psychological, and social factors. However, they are not necessarily most effectively treated by a conjunction of biological, psychological, and social interventions. The biopsychosocial model offers minimal guidance regarding how mental disorders are constituted or how they should be classified but it does rule out bioreductive approaches to these issues. Finally, the biopsychosocial model integrates biological, psychological, and social sciences with a concern for subjective experience, meaning, and values-based care, so it doesn’t just count against bioreductive approaches to psychiatry but all forms of scientific reductionism.