From Engel to Enactivism
European Journal of Analytic Philosophy October 26, 2021 A. Aftab, Kristopher Nielsen 22 citations
The biopsychosocial model, originally proposed by Engel, was more concerned with psychosocial influences on illness experience—such as how patients interpret symptoms, adopt sick roles, seek care, and interact with doctors—than with the ontological nature of psychosocial causes. This article argues that Bolton and Gillett's reconceptualization focuses too narrowly on causal interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors. Comparing their account with an enactivist approach to mental disorder reveals that Bolton and Gillett incorporate elements of 4E cognition but combine them with an information-processing paradigm, whereas a fuller enactive account avoids reliance on information-processing altogether.