Astral Codex Ten

biopsychosocial model

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biopsychosocial model

Article

biopsychosocial model is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between May 25, 2022 and July 25, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “the biopsychosocial model isn’t exactly a closely-guarded secret”; “Medicine, and especially psychiatry, already uses the Biopsychosocial Model for various purposes”; “The Biopsychosocial Model is most often used to explain the causes of illness”. It most often appears alongside American Psychological Association, Medical Model, NASA.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: May 25, 2022
  • Last seen: July 25, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

In Partial, Grudging Defense Of The Hearing Voices Movement
May 25, 2022 · Original source
People like to paint psychiatrists as close-minded monomaniacs who think medication is the only possible solution to everything. This is true of some, but an insult to others; contra what Johann Hari thinks, the biopsychosocial model isn’t exactly a closely-guarded secret.
Contra The Social Model Of Disability
July 14, 2023 · Original source
Medicine, and especially psychiatry, already uses the Biopsychosocial Model for various purposes. It acknowledges that conditions (eg depression) can be caused by an interaction of biological factors (eg genes), psychological factors (eg trauma), and social factors (eg an abusive relationship). Some conditions are 99% biological and only 1% psychosocial; others are the reverse, but we expect most to be some combination of those things.
Inline links: Biopsychosocial Model
This isn’t an exact match for a model of disability; the Biopsychosocial Model is most often used to explain the causes of illness, not how it impairs people. Still, I think there is a close enough analogy that it could be easily extended to disability.
The Biopsychosocial Model, unlike the Social Model or the straw-man Medical Model, emphasizes biology and social conditions alike. It allows either treating impairments medically or accommodating them socially, depending on what the patient prefers and what society is willing to change. It already has a good reputation among doctors and medical ethicists.
Highlights From The Comments On Social Model Of Disability
July 25, 2023 · Original source
I think the Biopsychosocial Model might be missing the factor of ... minority-ness.
overall point taken, but i do think the more salient/useful feature of the social model is that its theory of social causation intuitively produces a sense of social responsibility. does it matter necessarily if society "caused" the disability if the larger motivation is to promote social action? whether the approach is infrastructural or medical in nature, either way the responsibility to accommodate falls on society's shoulders at large. i think the social model's recognition of this necessity still advantages it over the biopsychosocial model […]
essentially i'm pointing to a functional disconnect between the two models. if the question is "what causes disability?" then i would agree that turning to the biopsychosocial model makes sense there. but if the question is "what should we do about it?" then i think the social model proves the more useful there. this is assuming we agree generally that social action of some sort is what's called for in order to solve the problem of, say, providing blind people with options for transportation […]