Holistic Psychiatry

Holistic Psychiatry offers a timely rethinking of psychiatry by showing why today’s symptom-based, reductionist models are no longer enough—and what can replace them.

Drawing together philosophy, research, clinical practice, and service-system design, this book presents a coherent holistic framework that understands phenomena labelled as mental disorders not as internal defects, but as an evolving, context-dependent situation shaped by biology, experience, relationships, and society. It provides a rigorous theoretical foundation, a realistic model of dialogical care, and concrete guidance for reorganizing services, research, and professional roles, including how to implement the World Health Organization’s guidance on community mental health services. Grounded in human rights, empirical evidence, and real-world practice, the book shows how mental health care can become more humane, effective, and sustainable without abandoning scientific responsibility.

This is an essential read for clinicians, researchers, policymakers, students of psychiatry, psychology, and mental health, and anyone concerned with the future of mental health care.