The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease

New Philosophical and Scientific Developments

Derek Bolton, Grant Gillett

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783030118983
• eBook ISBN: 9783030118990
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Ethics in Medicine
• Index: Psychology

This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model's scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence.

The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model's scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. The Biopsychosocial Model 40 Years On
• 2. Biology Involves Regulatory Control of Physical–Chemical Energetic Processes
• 3. Psychology Regulates Activity in the Social World
• 4. Biopsychosocial Conditions of Health and Disease
• Back Matter