Psychology 2036A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social System, Terminal Illness, Biopsychosocial Model

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2036A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazelwood

Document Summary

Common sense view = absence of illness: 3 common implications, physical illness has physical causes, tx the body eliminates illness = health, health and illness are opposites, these basic ideas underlying the biomedical model! Part 1: historical roots of biomedical model: ancient greeks (500-300 bce, hippocrates (father of modern medicine) (hippocratic oath named after him, prior to him illness = evil spirits that invaded the body! Trephination opening in skull to let evil spirits escape: hippocrates view = illness stems from biological processes; the humoral theory (4 body fluids- if properly balanced = health, if imbalanced = disease). Influential theory for the next 2,000 years: galen (130 ad, surgeon to the gladiators, took on a hands on approach, can learn about the body by dissection. The soul leaves the body at death, so dissection becomes acceptable, because soul is no longer present. So the mind/soul & body are separate (dualism): invention of the microscope (can observe cells & micro-organisms).