Practical manual of psychiatry

Talking about psychiatry - that is, the care of the psyche - within the framework of the medical models entails a series of assumptions. First and foremost, it involves applying the concept of illness, which typically refers to the body, to an entity like the psyche, which encompasses phenomena such as ideas, emotions, motivations, and behaviors; in other words, believing in the existence of mental illnesses as defined by medical criteria. This implies viewing the psyche as a set of functions whose biological correlates - particularly cerebral ones - can be studied, and identifying appropriate therapies when necessary.