A few critical remarks are made concerning alternative ideas in psychiatry and mental health, propagated by otherwise widely different authors as Laing, Cooper, Foudraine and Trimbos. The bulk of this article comprises an analysis of the most commonly heard objections against the medical model. It is not the author's intention to defend the medical model; he entirely agrees with the opinion that social models are of full value in psychiatry. The critique is above all focussed on the sometimes dogmatic, sometimes failing argumentation. Moreover, full attention is given to the ideas of Cooper and Laing about schizophrenia and psychosis. The romantic and of ten non-scientific nature of their writings is stressed.