ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates argument by applying biopsychosocial model to an institution whose principles reflect the main characteristics of the biopsychosocial approach, namely the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). It argues that the biopsychosocial model lacks a metatheoretical grounding, while it nevertheless remains potentially compatible with critical realism. The ICF is widely used as an interdisciplinary way to approach health and wellbeing issues. As wireless telecommunication continues to proliferate, health professionals are more frequently faced with patients presenting symptoms that they claim are connected with exposure to electromagnetic radiation (EMR): Some scientists and clinicians acknowledge the phenomenon of hypersensitivity to EMR resulting from common exposures such as wireless systems and electrical devices in the home or workplace; others suggest that electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is psychosomatic or fictitious. The chapter aims to underlabour for the ICF in pursuit of its goals: to provide a scientific basis for understanding and studying health and health-related states, outcomes, and determinants.
