The fallacy of the medical model and the dangers of psychotropic drugs as a mode of treatment for mental disorders.

With the decline of psychoanalytic thinking since the 50's and the 60's, mental disorders have been attributed to organic factors. This has been influenced by Social Darwinism, a belief in the survival of the fittest. The implication of such a philosophy is that social intervention is not the appropriate approach for the treatment of mental aberrations. The source of the problem lies within the individual. For example, schizophrenia has been attributed to brain anomalies, chemical imbalances or to the inheritance of genetic factors. To this day, in spite of the research efforts in that direction, the pursuit of these findings were proven to be illusive. Nevertheless, the search continues with a complete neglect of social factors. One problem is that writers disagreeing with this philosophy, find it difficult to publish their dissenting views. Since the source of the problem is within the individual, aberrations should be treated with drugs. However the efficacy of these drugs have not yet been confirmed and instead have been causing a lot of physical problems for patients. It is unfortunate that a number of influential clinical psychologists have adopted the medical model and are trying to obtain by legislation "prescription privileges" for psychologists. The author believes that this trend could be destructive to the profession of psychology, since it will weaken if not destroy the humanistic approach in the treatment of the mentally ill.