ABSTRACT
The field of mental health, including the various scientific and professional disciplines associated with it, is in the midst of a revolution of enormous scope and significance. The dimensions of this revolution cannot readily be described in brief and simple terms, but it involves nothing less than a radical redefinition of the nature of the phenomena that constitute the proper concern of workers in the mental health area. If there is a common theme in all of this, it is one of disillusionment with the so-called “medical model” of personality disorder, as evidenced by such terms as “mental disease,” “mental illness,” and “psychopathology.” According to this model, disordered behavior is the result of “pathogenic” factors existing inside of persons (in their minds or psyches) in a manner similar to a locus of infection or an organic structural defect; “treatment” within this framework therefore becomes a matter of excising, altering, or suppressing the malfunctioning mental element so that it will no longer cause trouble. The task of the professional helper is to “fix” the passive victim of the disease. This may be done by “deep” psychological probing, powerful pharmacological agents, electricity passed through the brain, or even surgical destruction of brain tissue. Treatment efforts geared to this model, while not without their occasional positive (or at least “calming”) effects, have been considerably less than impressive in their rate of production of “cures”; they frequently create as many problems as they solve. 1
