This title provides a systematic and accessible introduction to medical sociology, beginning each 1500 word entry with a definition of the concept, then examines its origins, development, strengths and weaknesses, offering further reading guidance for independent learning, and drawing on international literature and examples.

This outstanding collection of essays by Renee C. Fox encompasses almost thirty years of original, pioneering research in the sociology of medicine. Based on fieldwork in a variety of medical settings in the United States, Belgium, and Zaire, these ethnographic essays examine chronic and terminal illness, medical research, therapeutic innovation, medical education and socialization, and bio-ethics. Within this framework, three empirical "cases" have been singled out for special scrutiny--the process of becoming a physician, the development of the artificial kidney machine and organ transplantation, and the evolution of medical research in Belgium. Without ignoring social structural or psychodynamic factors, Dr. Fox has explored basic cultural phenomena and questions associated with health, illness, and medicine: values, beliefs, symbols, rites, and the nuances of language: ethical and existential dilemmas and dualities; and the complex interrelationships between medicine, science, religion, and magic. She draws systematically and imaginatively upon anthropological, psychological, historical, and biological insights and integrates observations and analyses from her own studies in American, Western European, and Central African societies. This second, augmented edition includes Professor Fox's more recent contributions to the expanding field of the sociology of medicine. They are "The Evolution of Medical Uncertainty; The Human Condition of Health Professionals; Reflections on the Utah Artificial Heart Program; Is Religion Important in Belgium?; Medical Morality is Not Bioethics"--"Medical Ethics in China and the United States; "and "Medicine, Science and Technology. "The work also includes a new introduction, "Endings, Beginnings and Continuities." Now, anthropologists, sociologists, medical educators, scientists, researchers, and students can join her on her "journeys into the field" and share with her the priceless insights to be gained from the physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and their families, who are working, living, and dying on the edge of what is known, scrutable, and remediable--on the edge of medical science.

This book provides readers with a single source reviewing and updating sociological theory in medical or health sociology. The book not only addresses the major theoretical approaches in the field today, it also identifies the future directions these theories are likely to take in explaining the social processes affecting health and disease. Many of the chapters are written by leading medical sociologists who feature the use of theory in their everyday work, including contributions from the original theorists of fundamental causes, health lifestyles, and medicalization. Theories focusing on both agency and structure are included to provide a comprehensive account of this important area in medical sociology.

The latest version of an important academic resource published about once a decade since 1963

This book presents a comprehensive discussion of classical ideas, core topics, currents and detailed theoretical underpinnings in medical sociology. It is a globally renowned source and reference for those interested in social dimensions of health and illness. The presentation is enriched with explanatory and illustrative styles. The design and illustration of details will shift the minds of the readers from mere classroom discourse to societal context (the space of health issues), to consider the implications of those ideas in a way that could guide health interventions. The elemental strengths are the sociological illustrations from African context, rooted in deep cultural interpretations necessitated because Africa bears a greater brunt of health problems. More so, the classical and current epistemological and theoretical discourse presented in this book are indicative of core themes in medical sociology in particular, but cut across a multidisciplinary realm including health social sciences (e.g., medical anthropology, health psychology, medical demography, medical geography and health economics) and health studies (medicine, public health, epidemiology, bioethics and medical humanities) in general. Therefore, apart from the book’s relevance as a teaching text of medical sociology for academics, it is also meant for students at various levels and all health professionals who require a deeper understanding of social dimensions of health and illness (with illustrations from the African context) and sociological contributions to health studies in general.

"A doctor can damage a patient as much with a misplaced word as with a slip of the scalpel." In this statement, from Lawrence J. Henderson, a famous physician whose name is part of the basic science of medicine, epitomizes the central theme of The Word as Scalpel. If words, the main substance of human relations, are so potent for harm, how equally powerful they can be to help if used with disciplined knowledge and understanding. Nowhere does this simple truth apply more certainly than in the behavior of a physician. Medical Sociology studies the full social context of health and disease, the interpersonal relations, social institutions, and the influence of social factors on the problems of medicine. Throughout its history, medical sociology divides naturally into two parts: the pre-modern, represented by various studies of health and social problems in Europe and the United States until the second World War, and the modern post-war period. The modern period has seen rapid growth and the achievement of the full formal panoply of professionalism. This engaging account documents the development of professional associations, official journals, and programs of financial support, both private and governmental. Written by a distinguished pioneer in medical sociology, The Word as Scalpel is a definitive study of a relatively new, but critically important field.