Evaluating Some of the Approaches: Biomedical Versus Alternative Perspectives in Understanding Mental Health

Author(s): Jonathan Beckett

This paper evaluates the biomedical paradigm and approach towards understanding and ‘treating’ mental illness. In so doing it works towards evaluating the understanding posed by medical views and contrasts this to a psycho-social understanding of ‘mental illness’; appreciating the individual within societal context and the range of factors impacting upon their lives.