Time for a Paradigm Change: Pervasiveness and Dangers of the Medical Model in Adolescent Psychology

Abstract

This article focuses on concerns of the medical model which links life struggles in adolescents with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)–delineated diagnoses, a belief in an underlying biochemical disorder, accepted treatment by a doctor considered to be an expert and a healer, and the standard practice use of medication as part of the treatment. With a grounding in biophysical issues rather than existential life choices, we are silently diminishing responsibility and empowerment and thereby establishing a dangerous passivity. With the release of the new DSM-5 and the publishing of The Book of Woe by Greenberg (2013) and Saving Normal by Frances (2013b), these concerns have been brought to the fore. I examine concerns of this approach including the difficulty adolescents have accepting their therapist as someone who understands their lives in a real way and the dangerous epidemic use of prescribed medications. Specific alternative approaches of empowerment, high expectations of responsibility, positive peer culture, and a structure that builds person-to-person respect as opposed to a therapist-to-patient hierarchy will be shown to be a critical and significant paradigm shift needed by our profession.