Models of Psychoses: Which One, When, and Why?

Abstract

The term “model” has been colonized by experts and is shared by several disciplines. It is as abused as the overlapping word “paradigm.” According to the Webster, a model may be “a structural design,” “a miniature representation of something,” “an example for imitation or emulation,” or “a description or analogy used to help visualize something that cannot be directly observed.” Only in some quarters it denotes an original, a standard, a thing copied and thus something superior to the copy (e.g., a model painted by an artist). In the real world, models serve a variety of roles, some committed to their major calling, others rather peripheral to their stated goals, but considered profitable. All appeal to the need of accepting simplified representations as if they were reality. They retreat from its perplexity by offering something less cumbersome, less burdensome technically or ethically, in a word, something less complex (Ashby, 1970).