"Describe and assess the effectiveness of the medical model"

The first 200 words of this essay...

"Describe and assess the effectiveness of the medical model"

The medical model describes that: mental disorders are caused by abnormal physiological processes rather than psychological causes.

The medical approach is very broad and focuses on the role of genetic, neurological and biochemical factors in the onset of mental disorders. For example, with genetics, the research into concordance rates has shown that if one of a monozygotic twin pair develops schizophrenia, there is a 50% chance that the other will also develop it. Anxiety disorders are explained by defects in the nervous system causing the person to be too easily aroused; depression is seen as a dysfunction in the neuronal transmission process. Other causes may include structural abnormalities of the brain or abnormal hormone levels.

The approach practices reductionism; the view that complex phenomena (such as thoughts, feelings and emotions) can be completely understood and explained at a more basic level; as biological processes. This simplification has been criticised for being insufficient for truly understanding psychopathology "The crippling flaw of the medical model is that it...can make provision neither for the person as a whole nor for the data of a psychological or social nature"