Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More

by Christopher M. Palmer

He was managing to focus less on tortured ruminations and more on things that he could control.

In 1977, Dr. George Engel, an internist and psychiatrist, developed a working model of what causes mental illness that is still widely used today. He called it the biopsychosocial model.

Another popular model is the diathesis–stress model. “Diathesis” means a biological predisposition to becoming ill, something like genetics or a hormonal imbalance.