Yale University

The social origins and expressions of illness.

TitleThe social origins and expressions of illness.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2004
AuthorsSinger, Merrill
JournalBritish medical bulletin
Volume69
Pagination9-19
Date Published2004
ISSN0007-1420
KeywordsAnthropology, Cultural, Attitude of Health Personnel, Attitude to Health, Cultural Evolution, Humans
AbstractThis chapter draws on British medical anthropologist Ronald Frankenburg's notion of the 'making social of disease', and his related concepts 'the making of disease' and 'the making individual of disease', to review the biomedical conception of disease from the perspective of medical anthropology. As opposed to the tendency of biomedicine to treat disease as a category in nature, a finite and objective reality discoverable through scientific endeavour, medical anthropology seeks to demonstrate the social origins of both the biomedical conception of disease and the expression of the sicknesses labelled diseases by doctors.
DOI10.1080/13648470.2011.615908
Alternate JournalBr. Med. Bull.

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