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Review of Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia

Review of Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia I have always assumed I would end my psychiatric career standing on a corner with a placard like Semmelweis. His placard said ‘Wash Your Hands’: he was trying to get obstetricians to recognise that, by not washing their hands, they were giving women puerperal fever. My sign would say ‘It’s not a disease’. I was fortunate to have trained in the United States at a time when psychosis was considered a fascinating and perplexing set of symptoms. Patients were often left untreated with medications for days so that we could find out ‘What’s going on’. After the psychosis remitted, those who came in with psychosis were treated like other patients and offered individual, group and milieu therapy. My recall is that mostly they got better. Now, whatever the rhetoric about biopsychosocial models, a glance at the literature will convince you that this is a genetic neurobiological disorder for which long-term antipsychotic medication is the primary treatment. Young doctors of my acquaintance, fired with enthusiasm about engaging with the mysteries of ‘schizophrenia’, soon learn that there is a given medical wisdom about the disorder. They rapidly become converts to the medical model, not only from the teaching they receive, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Wiley

Review of Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia

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References (5)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
2005 Australian Association of Family Therapy
ISSN
0814-723X
eISSN
1467-8438
DOI
10.1002/j.1467-8438.2005.tb00653.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

I have always assumed I would end my psychiatric career standing on a corner with a placard like Semmelweis. His placard said ‘Wash Your Hands’: he was trying to get obstetricians to recognise that, by not washing their hands, they were giving women puerperal fever. My sign would say ‘It’s not a disease’. I was fortunate to have trained in the United States at a time when psychosis was considered a fascinating and perplexing set of symptoms. Patients were often left untreated with medications for days so that we could find out ‘What’s going on’. After the psychosis remitted, those who came in with psychosis were treated like other patients and offered individual, group and milieu therapy. My recall is that mostly they got better. Now, whatever the rhetoric about biopsychosocial models, a glance at the literature will convince you that this is a genetic neurobiological disorder for which long-term antipsychotic medication is the primary treatment. Young doctors of my acquaintance, fired with enthusiasm about engaging with the mysteries of ‘schizophrenia’, soon learn that there is a given medical wisdom about the disorder. They rapidly become converts to the medical model, not only from the teaching they receive,

Journal

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy – Wiley

Published: Jun 1, 2005

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