Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to submit your manuscript to SPPS

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0022167807307901v1
49/1/66    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Elkins, D. N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Medical Model in Psychotherapy

Its Limitations and Failures

David N. Elkins

Pepperdine University, davidnelkins{at}hotmail.com

This article discusses the limitations and failures of the medical model in psychotherapy. Specifically, the article shows that (a) the medical model does not accurately describe what actually occurs in psychotherapy; (b) the model continues to dominate the field not because of its accuracy but because of its questionable ties with medicine, science, and the health insurance industry; (c) the model obscures the fact that psychotherapy is an interpersonal process, not a medical procedure; and (d) the model fails to account for the fact that the vast majority of clients use psychotherapy for support, guidance, and personal growth instead of treatment for mental illness. Implications of this analysis are presented.

Key Words: medical model • mental illness • diagnosis • psychotherapy

This version was published on January 1, 2009

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 1, 66-84 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167807307901
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?