Understanding and Managing Abnormal Behavior: The Need for a New Clinical Science

Abstract

The biomedical model of abnormality and its therapeutic management are discussed. Two central notions, the disease entity and biological causality, are examined critically and found unsound. An alternative, psychologically oriented model is also critically evaluated. We propose that the scientist-practitioner therapist should be agnostic about ultimate, causal, etiological beliefs, in order to encompass the valid elements of both the medical and the psychosocial approaches to intervention. Clinical evaluation would, however, reverse current biomedical practice and arrive at a diagnosis only after assessing the person's psychosocial context.