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Sociology of Medicine (Health and Illness)
Words are inadequate…
“Medical sociology centers on the social construction of health and illness –that is, a construction shaped by many elements of the social order and often independent from biomedical phenomena. In this perspective, medical sociology links together and makes sense of the varied manifestations of health and illness: biomedical data, professional practice, institutional structures, social policy, economics and financing, the social epidemiology of disease and death, and the individual experience of health, illness, and medical care. The discipline links the micro-level (self-awareness, individual action, and interpersonal communication), meso-level (hospital, medical education), and macro-level (the nation’s health status, the structure and political economy of the health care system, national health policy). This linkage ensures that individual entities are not studied in isolation from their surroundings.” –Phil Brown, ‘Themes in Medical Sociology’, Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Fall) 1991.
“In human societies pain, like so many other physiological phenomena, acquires specific and cultural significance, and accordingly, certain reactions to pain can be understood in light of this significance.” –Mark Zborowski, ‘Cultural Components in Response to Pain’, in Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1952.
“Within the last decade, medical professional practice has become a major threat to health. Depression, infection, disability, dysfunction, and other specific iatrogenic diseases now cause more suffering than all accidents from traffic or industry. Beyond this, medical practice sponsors sickness by the reinforcement of a morbid society which not only industrially preserves its defectiveness but breeds the therapist’s client in a cybernetic way. Finally, the so-called health professionals have a direct sickening power –a structurally health denying
Words are inadequate…
“Medical sociology centers on the social construction of health and illness –that is, a construction shaped by many elements of the social order and often independent from biomedical phenomena. In this perspective, medical sociology links together and makes sense of the varied manifestations of health and illness: biomedical data, professional practice, institutional structures, social policy, economics and financing, the social epidemiology of disease and death, and the individual experience of health, illness, and medical care. The discipline links the micro-level (self-awareness, individual action, and interpersonal communication), meso-level (hospital, medical education), and macro-level (the nation’s health status, the structure and political economy of the health care system, national health policy). This linkage ensures that individual entities are not studied in isolation from their surroundings.” –Phil Brown, ‘Themes in Medical Sociology’, Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Fall) 1991.
“In human societies pain, like so many other physiological phenomena, acquires specific and cultural significance, and accordingly, certain reactions to pain can be understood in light of this significance.” –Mark Zborowski, ‘Cultural Components in Response to Pain’, in Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1952.
“Within the last decade, medical professional practice has become a major threat to health. Depression, infection, disability, dysfunction, and other specific iatrogenic diseases now cause more suffering than all accidents from traffic or industry. Beyond this, medical practice sponsors sickness by the reinforcement of a morbid society which not only industrially preserves its defectiveness but breeds the therapist’s client in a cybernetic way. Finally, the so-called health professionals have a direct sickening power –a structurally health denying