Beyond eclecticism

Biopsychosocial eclecticism is incomplete because it does not address the important issues of differential causation and treatment staging. Psychiatric serialism goes beyond eclecticism to consider biological, psychosocial, and existential-moral parameters as equipotential and hierarchical. What this means in practice is that, after forming a treatment alliance, the therapist must always assess the evidence for a biological substrate of disorder and, where feasible, administer the appropriate biological treatments. On a stable biological platform, psychosocial interventions can then be utilized to promote the goals of lieben and arbeiten, and an existential therapy relationship can be forged to promote personal integrity.