Case Formulation

Gareth S. Owen

doi:10.1017/9781009212526.007

Chapter 7 - Case Formulation

Holism in Psychiatry

from Part I - Towards Psychiatric Formulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2025

Gareth S. Owen

Show author details

Gareth S. Owen: Affiliation:
King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Traces the history of the biopsychosocial model, the concept of diagnostic hierarchy and the role of ‘Verstehen’ (or intersubjective meaning grasping) in the psychiatric assessment. All three of these holistic concepts are considered relevant to the practice of case formulation. Responding to challenges aimed at these concepts, it is argued that they can be re-thought and defended and some recommendations are given for a renewed practice of formulation which balances classic and the romantic perspectives.

Keywords

formulation biopsychosocial model 4P model diagnostic hierarchy Verstehen psychiatry reaction Nicolai Hartmann

Type: Chapter
Information: Psychiatry and Human Nature
Classic and Romantic Perspectives
, pp. 90 - 106

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009212526.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Jaspers, K. General Psychopathology. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1962.Google Scholar

Plato, . Phaedrus. London: Penguin; 2005.Google Scholar

Owen, G, Wessely, S, Murray, R, editors. The Maudsley Handbook of Practical Psychiatry. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2014.Google Scholar

Meyer, A. Genetic-dynamic psychology versus nosology. In Winters, E, editor. The Collected Papers of Adolf Meyer Volume III: Medical Teaching, pp. 57–74. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press; 1951.Google Scholar

Meyer, A. The life chart and the obligation of specifying positive data in psychopathological diagnosis. In Winters, E, editor. The Collected Papers of Adolf Meyer Volume III: Medical Teaching, pp. 52–7. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press; 1951.Google Scholar

Mayer-Gross, W, Slater, E, Roth, M. Clinical Psychiatry. London: Cassell and Company Ltd; 1960.Google Scholar

Johnstone, EC, Cunningham Owens, DG, Lawrie, SM, Sharpe, M, Freeman, CPL, editors. Companion to Psychiatric Studies. 7th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone; 2004.Google Scholar

Ghaemi, SN. The Rise and Fall of the Biopsychosocial Model: Reconciling Art and Science in Psychiatry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 2010.Google Scholar

Goldberg, DP, Gask, L, Morriss, RK. Psychiatry in Medical Practice. London: Routledge; 2014.CrossRef Google Scholar

Davies, J, Guy, A, Montagu, L, Stacey, S, Giurca, B, Johnstone, L. Shifting the Balance Towards Social Interventions: A Call for an Overhaul of the Mental Health System. Beyond Pills All-Party Parliamentary Group: UK Parliament; 2024. https://beyondpillsappg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Beyond-Pills-APPG-Shifting-the-Balance-Report-2024-1.pdf.Google Scholar

Woodward, J. Cause and Explanation in Psychiatry. In Kendler, KS, Parnas, J, editors. Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry, pp. 132–84. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2008.Google Scholar

Bolton, D, Gillett, G. The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments: Springer Open Access; 2019. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK552029/.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Faigman, DL, Monahan, J, Slobogin, C. Group to Individual (G2i) inference in scientific expert testimony. U Chi L Rev. 2014;81(2):417–80.Google Scholar

Foulds, GA, Bedford, A. Hierarchy of classes of personal illness. Psychol Med. 1975;5(2):181–92.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Schneider, K. Clinical Psychopathology. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1959.Google Scholar

Jaspers, K. Causal and ‘understandable’ relationships between events and psychosis in dementia praecox (schizophrenia). In Sass, H, editor. Anthology of German Psychiatric Texts, pp. 174–295. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2007.Google Scholar

Schneider, K. Kraepelin and present-day psychiatry. In Sass, H, editor. Anthology of German Psychiatric Texts. Geneva: John Wiley and Sons; 2007.Google Scholar

Hartmann, N. New Ways of Ontology. London: Routledge; 2017.CrossRef Google Scholar

McHugh, P. Rendering mental disorders intelligible: addressing psychiatry’s urgent challenge. In Kendler, KS, Parnas, J, editors. Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry II: Nosology, pp. 269–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012.Google Scholar

McHugh, P, Slavney, PR. The Perspectives of Psychiatry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1998.CrossRef Google Scholar

Meyer, A. Notes of clinics in psychopathology. In Winters, E, editor. The Collected Papers of Adolf Meyer Volume III: Medical Teaching, pp. 139–224. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press; 1951.Google Scholar

Binswanger, L. Insanity as life-historical phenomenon and as mental disease: The case of Ilse. In May, R, Angel, E, Ellenberger, H, editors. Existence: A New Dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology, pp. 214–36. New York: Basic Books; 1958.Google Scholar

Kretschmer, E. A Textbook of Medical Psychology. London: The Hogarth Press; 1952.Google Scholar

Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1987.Google Scholar

Goethe, W. Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (Trans. T. Carlyle). South Carolina: CreateSpace; 2018.Google Scholar

Cotard, J. Nihilistic delusions. In Hirsch, S, Shepherd, M, editors. Themes and Variations in European Psychiatry, pp. 353–73. London: John Wright and Sons Ltd.; 1974.Google Scholar