This article provides a conceptual overview of the medical model and its application to psychiatry, understanding the medical model in psychiatry as a biopsychosocial model. The article discusses basic concepts relevant to the medical model (illness, disease, disorder, condition, etc.), the nature of medical knowledge and diagnostic construct, medical classifications in psychiatry, and the medical model within multidisciplinary practice. Salient criticisms of the medical model are discussed and addressed at relevant points. It is recognized that concepts such as disease and illness lack uncontested definitions and are not free from value judgements even in general medicine. Diagnostic constructs used in psychiatry are often descriptive heterogenous categories which can nonetheless offer clinical utility. The medical model co-exists with non-medical approaches and perspectives, and psychiatrists work in an interdisciplinary context …