Parsons Sick Role
Parsons revisited: from the sick role to . . . ?
Simon J. Williams
University of Warwick, UK
health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi) DOI: 10.1177/1363459305050582 1363-4593; Vol 9(2): 123–144
A B S T R AC T
This article revisits Parsons’ insights on medicine, health and illness in the light of contemporary debates in medical sociology and beyond. A preliminary balance sheet of the Parsonian legacy is first provided, taking on board standard accounts and criticisms of Parsons’ work within medical sociology to date. The remainder of the article, in contrast, involves a close re-reading of Parsons in the light of contemporary sociological debates on the body, emotion, trust, uncertainty and health, including late modern and postmodern interpretations of his work. Parsons, it is concluded, despite his (many) critics and detractors, has much to contribute here, not simply in terms of past insights, but also with regard to the present and future. body; emotion; health; Parsons; trust, uncertainty
K E Y WO R D S
A D D R E S S Simon J. Williams, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. [e-mail: s.j.williams@warwick.ac.uk] AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
Thanks to Alan Radley and the anonymous referees of this article for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Introduction
It is, by now, a well-rehearsed argument that Parsons is a key figure, if not a ‘founding father’, as far as the origin and development of medical sociology is concerned. Parsons’ analysis of illness as social deviance, and the sick role as a socially prescribed mechanism for channelling and controlling this deviance, is a key point of reference in the history of medical sociology, and a staple part of the diet that students of medical sociology (or sociology of health and illness as it is now more commonly known)1 are fed, year in year
Simon J. Williams
University of Warwick, UK
health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi) DOI: 10.1177/1363459305050582 1363-4593; Vol 9(2): 123–144
A B S T R AC T
This article revisits Parsons’ insights on medicine, health and illness in the light of contemporary debates in medical sociology and beyond. A preliminary balance sheet of the Parsonian legacy is first provided, taking on board standard accounts and criticisms of Parsons’ work within medical sociology to date. The remainder of the article, in contrast, involves a close re-reading of Parsons in the light of contemporary sociological debates on the body, emotion, trust, uncertainty and health, including late modern and postmodern interpretations of his work. Parsons, it is concluded, despite his (many) critics and detractors, has much to contribute here, not simply in terms of past insights, but also with regard to the present and future. body; emotion; health; Parsons; trust, uncertainty
K E Y WO R D S
A D D R E S S Simon J. Williams, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. [e-mail: s.j.williams@warwick.ac.uk] AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
Thanks to Alan Radley and the anonymous referees of this article for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Introduction
It is, by now, a well-rehearsed argument that Parsons is a key figure, if not a ‘founding father’, as far as the origin and development of medical sociology is concerned. Parsons’ analysis of illness as social deviance, and the sick role as a socially prescribed mechanism for channelling and controlling this deviance, is a key point of reference in the history of medical sociology, and a staple part of the diet that students of medical sociology (or sociology of health and illness as it is now more commonly known)1 are fed, year in year