Why psychiatry is a branch of medicine - Samuel B Guze

Why Psychiatry is a Branch of Medicine presents a broad and well reasoned exposition of the medical model applied to psychiatric disorders. It describes a way of thinking about these disorders that ties clinical practice and research to the broader perspective of modern biology. Samuel Guze argues that brain variations are involved in the development of psychopathological syndromes while at the same time subjective experiences - cognitive and emotional - are important manifestations of brain physiology in health and disease. The author emphasises the need to consider the three main strategies inherent in the medical model when making a psychiatric diagnosis; that is consideration of the epidemiological, the clinical, and the biological. How psychotherapy fits into the medical model and can be joined with biological psychiatry is an important facet of his discussion. The book also deals with a number of social, ethical, and philosophical questions that psychiatrists face offering stimulating reading for all psychiatrists, psychologists, and all those interested in the current approaches to the treatment of mental illness.