SOSA 2502 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Talcott Parsons, Allopathic Medicine, Sick Role
11 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Focus of sociology of health in early days was on medicine (in the west), but sociology in medicine, rather than sociology of medicine. Sociology in medicine does not challenge medicine very much, but helps medicine do its work. Help physicians distribute information and comply with doctors orders. Two main assumptions in 1950s: if there was a problem in medicine, the patient is the problem. Not how physicians behaved, were not under scrutiny at this time: disease is an individual problem. Not a social phenomenon best way to deal with that is through medical treatment. These two assumptions got criticized by first paradigm, structural functionalist (sociology of medicine [power dynamic in medicine, larger social aspect of health] Talcott parsons (influenced by emile durkheim social order) Society is built on large structures that each do a job in society. The function of these structures (based on competitiveness and anonymity) is to keep everything running smoothly.
