SOCI 365 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Biomedicine, Intersectionality, Invisibilia
5 May 2018
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Lecture 3 – January 11th
Defining Terms Continued
• Disease vs illness very important dichotomy
• Disease is also a fundamental construct
o There is no denying that there is something physiological going on in the
body but it is also determined by our way of categorizing it
• Similar to sex/gender and disease/illness is the biology/culture dichotomy
o We have things that might be happening to us on a material, physiological
setting but everything we understand about it comes from culture
o Culture of biomedicine
Biomedical Model
• Cultural phenomenon, mainly Western
• Assumes that disease is a deviation from normal physiological functioning
• Anything that is not illness or disease is health
Health as a Social Construction
• Social constructionists argue that the way in which we come to know, make
meaning out of, or give voice to our experiences are mediated through culture – are
socially constructed
• And oftentimes, those social constructions are more important or meaningful to a
person’s experience and life than are the biological processes
• Comes from values, assumptions and norms of living in this society in this specific
time-period
o Homogeneity – ideal that you are supposed to achieve and makes us conform
in the way that we do
• Assumes that health/illness is not self-evident, but varies across culture and across
time
• Power influences social constructions of illness
• Does not dismiss the biological reality of disease, pain and suffering
o Emphasizes that the moment we try to explain, understand, or make
meaning out of it
o It enters into a social process
• Homogeneity = power
• Does this deny the materiality of the body?
o Ideas about suffering
o This way of thinking does not deny the illness of suffering but in order to
understand we need to look at it through a specific sociological lens
o What kind of suffering do we deem as legitimate and illegitimate?
• Suffering itself is a social construct – idea of stigma
WHO Definition of Health
• A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity
• Prerequisites for health are:
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