ABSTRACT
In physical medicine, there is little dispute as to the precise nature of health. As Thomas Szasz points out, 'the norm is the structural and functional integrity of the human body'. The gradual realization that the contributions of the medical model to the understanding of psychological disturbances has been somewhat meagre, has led to widespread criticism of the concepts of mental health and illness. In psychiatry, the notion of health is far less clearcut. Although organic psychiatrists might maintain that mental health is merely the absence of signs, many others would argue that this medical analogy does not go far enough and that additional criteria are required. In psychiatry, social norms and values are important and can even be of greater significance than the degree to which the behaviour is unusual. Psychometric test results, being objective data collected under standardized conditions, are the equivalent of the laboratory tests in physical medicine.
