ABSTRACT
This chapter notes that in an orthodox biopsychosocial perspective, schizophrenia is a brain disorder understood medically but also involves psychological and social factors. Also discussed is that critics may emphasise physical aspects of a biopsychosocial standpoint seeing it as a ‘medical model.’ Critics may claim that seeing schizophrenia as a physical illness, implies a solely physical treatment like medication. The chapter argues that an orthodox position recognises as well as physical causal factors, environmental and social triggers of schizophrenia, and also endorses nonphysical treatments. Another criticism examined is that a medical approach is pessimistic about the chances of recovery from schizophrenia, seeing it as an incurable illness in which life events are peripheral. The chapter argues that evidence of the long-term progress of people with schizophrenia contradicts this view. It discusses and rejects a subjectivist view in which positions are not examined for evidence of truth or correctness but presented as what some people think or feel. Also examined and rejected is the view that understanding schizophrenia as an illness is just another theory. The chapter illustrates how criticism of an orthodox position is expressed for example through emotive language.
