Psychotherapy and the medical model: The hypocrisy of health insurance

Psychotherapists manifest a severe discrepancy between practice and preachment when they espouse rejection of a medical model of human problems and psychotherapyand accept health insurance for their work. When psychotherapists accept health insurance they classify their actions and their client's problems as medical or quasi-medical entities, confuse the literal and metaphoric definitions of illness and treatment, and support the medical model. Acceptance of health insurance may serve numerous functions including: symbolic legitimization of psychotherapists; monetary gain; and the obfuscation of moral/social issues. Accepting health insurance while criticizing the medical view is hypocritical and interferes with understanding human problems.