How the tower of information leads to an integrated framework for biopsychosocial ideas

The biopsychosocial model is the prevailing conceptual model in relationship to which clinicians organize their analysis, evaluation and intervention. Since its promotion by Engel, little work has been done to provide a more solid conceptual basis for the relationship between the biological and the psychosocial processes in sickness and in health. We propose such a framework, using the perspective of life forms as information gathering and utilizing systems. We derive the simplest non-trivial model, the four domain model, which consists of the physical domains determining human processes: the environment, the body, the confined memories, and the communicable memories. We then re-visit Engel's case study to contrast our model with his systems approach, and apply it to issues in psychosomatics and the mind-body connection.