ABSTRACT
Drawing an analogy between physical and mental health, the medical model approach adopts 'the whole conceptual apparatus of symptom, syndrome, diagnosis, aetiology, pathology, therapy and cure'. The model is a way of looking at the problems of social/behavioural deviance/abnormality so that they can be identified as a form of illness, to use the term, mental illness. The model approach to maladjustment has provided the rationale for a number of procedures within the education service which have enabled it to adapt to, assimilate or atrophy the problems caused by disruptive behaviour, thus keeping its ecology in balance. It allows the teacher's definitions to be justified, not only when they have control over referrals but also in other circumstances. The main outcome of the medical model is the 'labelling process' whereby individual pupils are given a label, e.g., maladjusted or disruptive, which not only provides a useful descriptive purpose but through the model also implies an understanding of cause, course, and cure.
