... of psychopathology. Each model attempts to answer (at least some of) the questions we have posed. This discussion is a starting place: it is not an exhaustive list of models, nor is it the last time we will confront these issues. II. The Medical Model The dominant model today (at least within psychiatry) is the medical model of psychopathology (Carpenter, 1987; Engel, 1980). The basic assumption is that psychological disorders are diseases. The nature of onset, distribution of cases, development and course, treatment response, and associated features seen in psychological disorders are seen to be parallel to what occurs in physical diseases (Carpenter, 1987). This model assumes diseases of any sort to be fully understood in terms of abnormal biological variables (Engel, 1977). Thus, a "psychological" disorder can be explained in terms of (and actually is) a disorder of underlying physical mechanisms (e.g.: biochemical and physiological processes). Of the etiological factors that we have examined, the biological realm is primary. To understand psychopathology, ...

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