Sociology and Medicine: A Critique of the Biomedical Model, Slides of Sociology

Download Sociology and Medicine: A Critique of the Biomedical Model and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Lecture 11: Experiencing Health and Illness docsity.com Lecture Outline  Sociology’s relationship to medicine  Structural-functionalism  Parsons’ view of the doctor-patient relationship  The ‘biomedical model’  Obesity as epidemic?  Sociological criticism of biomedicine docsity.com The ‘sick role’  Criticisms include:  ‘Motivatedness’  Entry into the sick role not straightforward  Certain forms of illness are stigmatising  Pertains only to acute conditions (Gallagher 1976)  Conflict is common (Friedson 1988)  But concept is valuable as a challenge to the biomedical model docsity.com The biomedical model  Focuses on the body of the sick person (i.e., a reductionist model)  Based in the ‘doctrine of specific aetiology’ (Dubos 1960)  Sees disease as culturally universal  Claims scientific neutrality  Rising prestige of medical specialists  Hospital represents pinnacle of medical practice docsity.com The sociological critique  Causes of illness are often partly social  Biomedical model defines them in individualistic terms  Patients are deemed responsible for ‘failed’ treatment  Doctrine of specific aetiology rarely provides a complete explanation docsity.com The sociological critique  Medical practice is less than value-free  May aim to be unbiased, but still normative in practice  Factors like class influence consulting behaviours (Cartwright and O’Brien 1976)  Normative judgements also affect treatment (Jeffrey 1979) docsity.com The sociological critique  Medicine conceptualised as a form of social control  Foucault (1973; 1977):  Power operates through surveillance/self- surveillance and individuation  (New) medical knowledge establishes norms against which all can be judged docsity.com Tomorrow…  Some implications for inequalities in health  Patterns associated with gender, age and class  Variations in people’s understandings of ‘healthiness’, and  Beliefs about how to become/stay healthy docsity.com