Criticizing the biomedical model of mental disorders doesn’t mean denying that biological factors can play a role in some forms of mental distress. It means rejecting the oversimplified idea that DSM-defined disorders are brain diseases or chemical imbalances, which distorts public understanding. And yes, psychiatrists now claim to follow the “biopsychosocial” model—then they should have no issue with me criticizing the biomedical model because there’s been no real effort to correct public misconceptions. That said, I’m not totally satisfied with the biopsychosocial answer. In practice, the field still treats mental disorders as primarily biological, as its main function remains prescribing medication.

G. Civitarese (2024) succinctly summarizes the dilemma: 'I also cherish my identity as a psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist's profession is also one that I like. I will always be grateful to those who advised me to go through the impenetrable and brilliant pages of Jasper's psychopathology, and also Schneider, Binzwanger, Minkowski, and so on. As a psychotherapist, however, I can think of myself only within the framework of psychoanalysis. Anything else seems to me so reductive, and somehow so insensitive to the complexity of the human soul as to be almost, unethical, and in any case uninteresting, because that is how I subjectively feel about it.'

Trauma Can Be Healed Naturally Talk therapy alone isn’t enough to fully heal trauma—it bypasses the limbic brain, where emotions and trauma are stored. That’s why neuroscience-based approaches like Somatic Therapy are changing the game. They work directly with the nervous system to process and release trauma. Here’s how: