Taking Stock of the Biopsychosocial Model in the Field of 'Mental Health Care'‪.‬

This paper will review the legacy of the bio-psychosocial model in the field of 'mental health care'. The latter, placed in speech marks because it is typically more about responding to presumed mental disorder than promoting mental health, can be found in a range of professionals. This range is often now called the 'psy complex'-: psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychiatric nursing, mental health social work, counselling and psychological therapy. It is relevant to note at the outset that this list describes occupational groupings that nestle together regularly in those work contexts, which assess and treat people with mental health problems. Their core socialisation in higher education is predicated on a range of academic disciplines from the biological and social sciences. With these preliminary comments in mind about the ambiguities of the 'psy complex' and 'mental health care', we now appraise an important tension, between bio-determinists and their critics that emerged at the turn of the 20th century and which remained unresolved a century later (Clare, 1999, cf .Guze, 1989).