The biomedicalization of psychiatry: A critical overview

Abstract

The biomedical model currently dominates psychiatric clinical practice and research. Unfortunately, this dominance had led increasingly to biological reductionism. This paper examines the historical and sociopolitical underpinnings of the biomedical model, and illustrates some of the common scientific distortions of reductionistic thinking. These observations are applied to recent directions in mental health policy and are used to provide a basis for alternative perspectives of mental illness and psychiatric research.