The biopsychosocial model in Anglo-American psychiatry: Past, present and future?

Abstract

The biopsychosocial model in Anglo-American psychiatry is appraised. Its content and history are described and its scientific and ethical strengths noted. approaches in the profession, especially an older but enduring biomedical model. The tensions provoked by the latter, in relation to 'anti-psychiatry', the users' movement and 'critical psychiatry' are explored, as a context in which the biopsychosocial model has both emerged and been constrained. At the end of the paper, reasons for the relative lack of success of the model are discussed and its future prospects assessed. It is situated in relation to competing