The practice of formulation has been both championed and severely criticised within clinical psychiatry and interest in formulation within the teaching of clinical psychiatry is at a low ebb. This article traces the history of the biopsychosocial model, the concept of diagnostic hierarchy and the role of 'verstehen' (or intersubjective meaning grasping) in the clinical assessment. All three of these concepts are considered relevant to the practice of formulation. Responding to challenges aimed at these concepts, it argues that formulation in psychiatry needs resuscitating and rethinking and provides some recommendations for a practice of formulation fit for the 21st century.
Keywords: Formulation; biopsychosocial model; diagnostic hierarchy; medical education; philosophy of psychiatry; verstehen.