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The Biomedical Paradigm Of Mental Illness

Decent Essays

(A) In the midst of the twentieth century, an Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud, introduced new ideas about mental illness and treatment to such illnesses that not only “[changed] the way we think about mental illness,” but also paved a path to the field as we know today as psychiatry. In his several theories and models, Freud presents claims of every individual possessing an unconscious in which we harbor our conflicts. Through a treatment that he personally developed called psychoanalysis, Freud would help people adjust to those conflicts. Essentially, in the Austrian psychologist’s paradigm, use of deep, personal relationships established through psychoanalysis were used to identify and adjust mental illnesses that exhibited symptoms of uneasiness. …show more content…

In the Biomedical paradigm of mental illness, there is a claim that mental illness is a product of neurological defaults, meaning there is more to describe and derive about our understanding of mental illness in the brain then there is in the mind. On the other hand, Freudian paradigm understands that while brain dysfunction may be a product of mental illness, these symptoms all stem back to an underlying problem in the unconscious mind, not functionality of the …show more content…

To begin, the framework of Freud’s psychiatric model was very weak in the sense of diagnosis of serious psychoses. If they did show signs of improving patients condition, they either took too long or had a simple and more efficient approaches— namely drug therapy. This first-line of defense stemmed from the transition of need for reliable, clinical diagnosis and treatment. Such ideals represent the foundation for the parallel Biomedical model. (E) Lastly, when determining which paradigm matches which proposed theory, there is little room for deviance in which set of ideals align. In Freudian framework, it appears mind functions differently then that of the mind. The unconscious mind harbors ones’ conflicts and may only be resolved with this respect. In opposition, the Biomedical framework can be clearly described in terms of the Neurological Disorder Theory in which brain functions improperly and mental illness exists upon the brain, not the

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