Health care in light of different theories of health——A proposed framework for integrating a social humanistic perspective into health care

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the biomedical, the biopsychosocial, and the social humanistic theories of health and to propose a framework for integrating the latter into health care. In summary, the definitions of health, illness and disease are essential to the practice of health care and play fundamental roles in how patients’ experiences of being ill are valued and assessed within health care systems. Principally, the biomedical perspective proceeds from pathoanatomical deficiencies defining disease and malfunction; the addition of psychosocial components forms a biopsychosocial perspective.In addition, the social humanistic perspective extends from a person’s will, their ability to act, and the possibility to fulfill wanted actions. Thus, health care that does not address the social humanistic perspective may lack the power to describe how these entities are related to the patient on a personal level; thus,the will of the patient is not always fully addressed. Importantly, by targeting the will of the patient and the patient’s ability to act, the proposed framework of integrating a social humanistic perspective into health care may further emphasize and strengthen the interrelatedness of medical perspectives. A framework for integrating a social humanistic perspective into health care is proposed and its potential impact on health care is discussed.