ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the contrast between the medical model and the person-centred approach and the formidable challenge for person-centred practitioners working within health services and mental health settings especially. It focuses on phenomenology, objectivity, subjectivity and the difference between 'explaining' and 'understanding'. These issues highlight some of the tensions of trying to practise psychiatry in a traditional National Health Service (NHS) mental health setting, whilst also being sensitive to person-centred values. The chapter identifies the main categories of argument used to either support or criticise the use of psychodiagnosis. The person-centred approach is often regarded as antipathetic towards the medical model as practised in psychiatry. The non-directive attitude of the person-centred approach is one of the other major aspects of the approach that stands in stark contrast to the medical model. The chapter focuses on assessment and diagnosis only and summarises a range of person-centred viewpoints and criticisms.
