ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the biopsychosocial model of health and illness. There is an interesting paradox inherent in the nature of common sense views of health and illness: healers who can relieve suffering and postpone death acquire power, wealth, and status in most societies. The phrase, “the facts are the facts” represents the common sense idea that objective, publicly verifiable biological facts are what matters in health and disease. C. G. Helman identifies an increasing public conviction that biomedicine is failing to solve health problems. Perhaps the most important common sense assumption beneath a medical approach to health and illness is that it offers the most effective way to combat disease. To the extent that patients endorse and accept the arrangements, they are holding beliefs that justify the system and militate against improvements in their own health status. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
