Rethinking Harm: Public Health, Public Safety, and the Limits of Psycentrism in Addressing Complex Social Problems

Abstract

Persistent and interlinked crises such as homelessness, crime, and suicide increasingly expose the limitations of siloed and conventional approaches to public health and public safety. These complex social problems are deeply embedded within broader structures of harm, inequality, and trauma—realities that exceed the explanatory reach of individualistic, psycentric frameworks. This paper advocates for a transdisciplinary focus on harm reduction that bridges the social sciences with the medical and human sciences to address these challenges more effectively. Central to this approach is a shift toward a biopsychosocial understanding of public well-being—one that foregrounds the interplay between biological vulnerability, psychological distress, and the social determinants of health and safety. Issues such as chronic homelessness, interpersonal and structural violence, and increasing suicide rates are not treated as isolated behavioral pathologies, but as symptomatic of systemic dislocation, historical trauma, and social marginalization. Drawing from sociology, public health, medicine, psychology, and criminology, this paper outlines an interdisciplinary framework for contemporary research and policy. It calls for moving beyond traditional psycentrism—defined as reactive, individual-level therapeutic interventions—toward proactive, collective strategies of care, prevention, and structural transformation. Emphasizing harm reduction as a guiding principle, the paper argues for a non-psycentric approach that recognizes the social, cultural, and institutional conditions underpinning public health and safety, and proposes integrated models of response that reflect the complexity of lived experience.

Presenters

Heidi Rimke
Associate Professor and Chair (Acting), Sociology and Disability Studies, University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Social and Community Studies

KEYWORDS

Harm, Trauma, Public Safety, Public Health, Critical Theory