The Relevance of Social Science for Medicine

ISBN-13: 9789027711854 / Angielski / Miękka / 1980 / 432 str.

L. Eisenberg; A. Kleinman; Leon Eisenberg

Opis

The central purpose of this book is to demonstrate the relevance of social science concepts, and the data derived from empirical research in those sciences, to problems in the clinical practice of medicine. As physicians, we believe that the biomedical sciences have made - and will continue to make - important con- tributions to better health. At the same time, we are no less fIrmly persuaded that a comprehensive understanding of health and illness, an understanding which is necessary for effective preventive and therapeutic measures, requires equal attention to the social and cultural determinants of the health status of human populations. The authors who agreed to collaborate with us in the writ- ing of this book were chosen on the basis of their experience in designing and executing research on health and health services and in teaching social science concepts and methods which are applicable to medical practice. We have not attempted to solicit contributions to cover the entire range of the social sciences as they apply to medicine. Rather, we have selected key ap- proaches to illustrate the more salient areas. These include: social epidemiology, health services research, social network analysis, cultural studies of illness behavior, along with chapters on the social labeling of deviance, patterns of therapeutic communication, and economic and political analyses of macro-social factors which influence health outcomes as well as services.

Spis treści

1. Clinical Social Science.- Section 1: How Academic Physicians View the Social Sciences.- 2. An Informal Appraisal of the Current Status of ‘Medical Sociology’.- Section 2: Social Supports: Influences on Health and Illness.- 3. Physical Health and the Social Environment: A Social Epidemiological Perspective.- 4. Social Network Influences on Morbid Episodes and the Career of Help Seeking.- Section 3: Illness Behavior.- 5. Sickness and the Sickness Career: Some Implications.- 6. The Sickness Impact Profile: The Relevance of Social Science to Medicine.- 7. Cultural Influences on Illness Behavior: A Medical Anthropological Approach.- Section 4: Culture, Meaning, and Negotiation.- 8. The Meaning of Symptoms : A Cultural Hermeneutic Model for Clinical Practice.- 9. A Cultural Prescription for Medicocentrism.- 10. Attributions: Uses of Social Science Knowledge in the ‘Doctoring’ of Primary Care.- 11. Structural Constraints in the Doctor-Patient Relationship: The Case of Non-Compliance.- 12. Doctor-Patient Negotiation and Other Social Science Strategies in Patient Care.- Section 5: Social Labeling and Other Patterns of Social Communication.- 13. The Social Labeling Perspective on Illness and Medical Practice.- 14. The Double-Bind Between Dialysis Patients and Their Health Practitioners.- Section 6: Sociopolitical and Socioeconomic Analyses.- 15. A Marxist Analysis of the Health Care Systems of Advanced Capitalist Societies.- 16. Importance of the Economy to the Nation’s Health.- List of Contributors.- Name Index.