Thinking with the living body: the biopsychosocial model and the cosmopolitics of existence

摘要

This paper argues that the ‘biopsychosocial’ model of the body highlights the importance of the psychosocial dimension for a better understanding of health and illness. Most importantly, by emphasising the fundamental relevance of values in the make-up of living systems, the biopsychosocial model radically challenges the common sense operation of evidence-based biomedical operations that bifurcate the body into the subjectivities of human perceptions and the non-subjective qualities of the nature of bodies. The biopsychosocial model protests against the manner by which only non-subjective qualities gain explanatory power in analysing, diagnosing and treating somatic and mental health issues. To accentuate the explanatory importance of values in understanding embodied human life, I will introduce émile Durkheim’s seminal work about human society as a reality.