Medical sociology

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Nurses protesting at the Nurses' Protest at Trafalgar Square, UK on Saturday 12 September 2020

Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledge and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural (rather than clinical or bodily) effects of medical practice. The field commonly interacts with the sociology of knowledge, science and technology studies, and social epistemology. Medical sociologists are also interested in the qualitative experiences of patients, often working at the boundaries of public health, social work, demography and gerontology to explore phenomena at the intersection of the social and clinical sciences. Health disparities commonly relate to typical categories such as class and race. Objective sociological research findings quickly become a normative and political issue.

Contents

Early work in medical sociology was conducted by Lawrence J Henderson whose theoretical interests in the work of Vilfredo Pareto inspired Talcott Parsons interests in sociological systems theory. Parsons is one of the founding fathers of medical sociology, and applied social role theory to interactional relations between sick people and others. Later other sociologists such as Eliot Freidson have taken a conflict theory perspective, looking at how the medical profession secures its own interests. [1] :291 Key contributors to medical sociology since the 1950s include Howard S. Becker, Mike Bury, Peter Conrad, Jack Douglas, Eliot Freidson, David Silverman, Phil Strong, Bernice Pescosolido, Carl May, Anne Rogers, Anselm Strauss, Renee Fox, and Joseph W. Schneider.

The field of medical sociology is usually taught as part of a wider sociology, clinical psychology or health studies degree course, or on dedicated master's degree courses where it is sometimes combined with the study of medical ethics and bioethics. In Britain, sociology was introduced into the medical curriculum following the Goodenough report in 1944: "In medicine, 'social explanations' of the etiology of disease meant for some doctors a redirection of medical thought from the purely clinical and psychological criteria of illness. The introduction of 'social' factors into medical explanation was most strongly evidenced in branches of medicine closely related to the community — Social Medicine and, later, General Practice" ( Reid 1976 ).

History

Samuel W. Bloom argues that the study of medical sociology has a long history but tended to be done as one of advocacy in response to social events rather than a field of study. He cites the 1842 publication of the sanitary conditions of the labouring population of Great Britain as a good example of such research. This medical sociology included an element of social science, studying social structures as a cause or mediating factor in disease, such as for public health or social medicine. [2] :11

Bloom argues the development of medical sociology is linked to the development of sociology within American universities. He argues that the 1865 creation of the American Social Science Association (ASSA) was a key event in this development. [2] :25 ASSA's initial aim was policy reform on the basis of science. [2] :25 Bloom argues that over the next few decades the role of ASSA moved from advocacy to academic discipline, noting that a number of academic professional bodies broke away from the ASSA during this period, starting with the American Historical Association in 1884. The American Sociological Society formed in 1905. [2] :26

The Russell Sage Foundation, formed in 1907, was a large philanthropic organization which worked closely with the American Sociological Society, which had medical sociology as a primary focus of its suggested policy reform. [2] :36 Bloom argues that the presidency of Donald R Young, a professor of sociology, that started in 1947 was significant in the development of medical sociology. [2] :182 Young motivated by a desire to legitimize sociology, encouraged Esther Lucile Brown, an anthropologist who studied the professions, to focus her work on the medical professions due to medicine's societal status. [2] :183

Harry Stock Sullivan

Harry Stack Sullivan was a psychiatrist who investigated the treatment of schizophrenia using approaches of interpersonal psychotherapy working with sociologists and social scientists including Lawrence K. Frank, W. I. Thomas, Ruth Benedict, Harold Lasswell and Edward Sapir. [2] :76 Bloom argues that Sullivans work, and its focus on putative interpersonal causes and treatment of schizophrenia influenced ethnographic study of the hospital setting. [2] :76

The Medical Profession

The profession of medicine has been studied by sociologists. Talcott Parsons looked at the profession from a functionalist perspective, focusing on medics roles as experts, their altruism, and how they support communities. Other sociologists have taken a conflict theory perspective, looking at how the medical profession secures its own interests. Of these, Marxist conflict theory perspective considers how the ruling classes can enact power through medicine, while other theories propose a more structural pluralist approach, exemplified by Eliot Freidson, looking at how the professions themselves secure influence. [1] :291

Medical Education

The study of medical education was a central part of the medical sociology since its emergence in the 1950s. The first publication onn the topic was Robert Merton's, The Student Physician. Other scholars who studied the field include Howard S. Becker, with his publication, Boys in white. [3] :1

The hidden curriculum is a concept in medical education that refers to a distinction between what is officially taught and what is learned by a medical student. [3] :16 The concept was introduced by Philip W. Jackson in his book, Life in the classroom, but developed further by Benson Snyder. The concept have been criticised by Lakomski and there was considerable debate on the concepts within the educational community. [3] :17

Medical Dominance

Writing the 1970s Eliot Freidson argued that medicine had reached a point of "Professional Dominance" over the content of their work, other health professions and their clients by convincing the public of medicine's effectiveness, gaining a legal monopoly over their work, and appropriating other "medical" knowledge through control of training. [4] :433 This concept of dominance was extended to professions as a whole in closure theory, where professions were seen as competing for scope of practice, for example in the work of Andrew Abbott. [4] :434 Coburn argued that the academic interest in medical dominance decreased over time due to the increased role of capitalism in healthcare in the US, [4] :436 challenges to the control of health policy by politicians, economists and planners, and increased agency of patients through their access to the internet. [4] :439 Kath M. Melia, sociologist nursing professor, argued that, so far as nurses were concerned the medical 'paternalistic' attitudes remained. [5] [6]

Medicalization

Medicalization describe the process whereby an ever wider range of human experiences are understood is defined, experienced and treated as a medical condition. Examples of medicalization can be seen in deviance such as defining addiction or antisocial personality disorder as a medical condition. Feminist scholars have shown that the female body is prone to medicalization, arguing that the tendency of viewing the female body as the other has been a factor in this. [7] :151

Medicalization can obscure social factors by defining a condition as existing entirely within an individual and can be depoliticizing, suggesting than an intervention should be medical when the best intervention is political. Medicalization can give the profession of medicine undue influence. [7] :152

Social construction of illness

Social constructionists study the relationships between ideas about illness and expression, perception and understanding of illness by individuals, institutions and society. [7] :148 Social constructionists study why diseases exist in one place and not another, or disappear from a particular area. For example, premenstrual syndrome, anorexia nervosa and susto appear to exist in some cultures but not others.

There are a broad range of social constructionist frameworks used in medical sociology that make different assumptions about the relationships between ideas, social processes and the material world. [7] :149 Illnesses vary in the degree to which their definition is socially constructed and some illnesses are straightforwardly biologically. [7] :150 For these straightforwardly biologically diseases it would not be meaningful to describe them a social construction, though it might be meaningful to study the social processes that resulted in the discovery of the disease. [7] :150

Some illnesses are contested when someone complains about a disease despite the medical community being unable to find a biological mechanism for disease. Examples of contested diseases include chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and Gulf War syndrome. For contested diseases can be studied as social constructs but there is no biomedical understanding. Some contested diseases are accepted by the institutions of biomedicine such as chronic fatigue syndrome others are not such as environmental diseases. [7] :153

Sick role

The study of the social construction of illness within medical sociology can be traced to Talcott Parsons notion of the sick role. [7] :148 Talcott Parsons introduced the notion of the sick role in his book The Social System. [8] :211 Parsons argued that the sick role is a social role approved and enforced by social norms and institutional behaviours where an individual is viewed as showing certain behaviour because they are in need of support. [8] :212

Parsons argues that defining properties are that the sick person is exempt from normal social roles, that they are not "responsible" for their condition, that they should try to get well, and that they should seek technically competent people to help them. [8] :213

The concept of the sick role was critiqued by sociologists from a neo-marxist, phenomonological and social interactionist perspective, as well as by those with an anti-establishment viewpoint. [9] :76 Burnham argues that part of this criticism was a rejection of functionalism due to its associations with conservatism. The sick role fell out of favour in the 1990s. [9]

Labelling theory

Labelling theory derived from work by Howard S. Becker who studied the sociology of marijuana use. He argued that norms and deviant behaviour are partly the result of the definitions applied by others. Eliot Freidson applied these concepts to illness. [8] :226

Labelling theory separates the aspects of an individual's behaviour that is caused by an illness, and that which is caused by the application of a label. Freidson distinguished labels based on legitimacy and the degree to which to this legitimacy affected an individual's responsibilities. [8] :227

Labelling theory has been criticized on the ground that it does not explain which behaviours are labelled as deviant and why people engage in behaviours which are labelled as deviant: labelling theory is not a complete theory of deviant behaviour. [8] :228

Mental health

An illness framework is the dominant framework for disease in psychiatry and diagnosis is considered worthwhile. [10] :2 Psychiatry has emphasizes the biological when considering mental illness. [10] :3 Some psychiatrists have criticized this model: some prefer biopsychosocial definitions, some prefer social constructionist models, others have argued that madness is an intelligent response if all circumstances are understood (Laing and Esterson). Thomas Szasz, who trained as psychiatrist, argued that mental health was a bad concept in his 1961 book, The Myth of Mental Illness, arguing that minds can only be ill metaphorically. [10] :3

The Doctor-Patient relationship

The doctor–patient relationship, the social interactions between healthcare providers and those who interact with them, is studied by medical sociology. There are different models for the interaction between a patient and doctor, which may have been more or less prevalent at different times. One such model is medical consumerism that has partly given way to patient consumerism.

Medical Paternalism

Medical paternalism is the perspective that doctors want what is best for the patient and must take decisions on behalf of the patient because the patient is not competent to make their own decisions. Parsons argued that though there was an asymmetry of knowledge and power in the doctor patient relationship the medical system provided sufficient safeguards to protect the patient justifying a paternalistic role by the doctor and medical system. [11] :496

A system of medical paternalism was prominent following the second world war through to the mid-1960s. Writing in the 1970s, Eliot Freidson referred to medicine as having "professional dominance", determining its work and defining a conceptualization of the problems that are brought to it and the best solutions to them. [11] :497 Professional dominance is defined by three characteristics: practictioners having power over clients, for example through dependency, knowledge, or location asymmetry; control over juniors in the field, requiring juniors deference and submission; and control over other professions either by excluding them from practice, or placing them under control of the medical profession. [10] :161

Yeyoung Oh Nelson argues that this system of paternalism was in part undermined by organizational change in the following decades in the US whereby insurance companies, managers and the pharmaceutical industry started competing for role of conceptualizing and delivering medical services, part of the motive being cost saving. [11] :498

Bioethics

Bioethics studies ethical concern in medical treatment and research. Many scholars believe that bioethics arose due to a perceived lack of accountability of the medical profession, the field has been broadly adopted with most US hospitals offering some form of ethical consultation. The social effects of the field of bioethics have been studied by medical sociologists. [12] :2 Informed consent, having its roots in biothetics, is the process by which a doctor and a patient agree to a particular intervention and has. Medical sociology study the social processes that influences and at times limit consent. [13]

Social medicine

Social medicine is a similar field to medical sociology in that it tries to conceptualize social interactions [14] :241 in investigating how the study of social interactions can be used in medicine. [15] :9 However, the two fields have different training, career paths, titles, funding and publication. [14] :241In the 2010s, Rose and Callard argued that this distinction may be arbitrary. [14] :242

In the 1950s, Strauss argued that it was important to maintain the independence of medical sociology from medicine so that there was a different perspective on sociology separate from the aims of medicine. [14] :242 Strauss feared that if medical sociology started to adopt the goals expected by medicine it risked losing its focus on analysing society. These fears that have been echoed since by Reid, Gold and Timmermans. [14] :248 Rosenfeld argues that the study of sociology focused solely on making recommendations for medicine has limited use for theory building and its findings cease to apply in different social situations. [14] :249

Richard Boulton argues that medical sociology and social medicine are "co-produced" in the sense that social medicine responds to the conceptualization of medical practices created by medical sociology and alters medical practice and medical understanding in response, and that the effects of these changes are then analyzed by medical sociology once again. [14] :245 He argues that the tendency to view certain theories such as the scientific method (positivism) as the basis for all knowledge, and conversely the tendency to view all knowledge as associated with some activity both risk undermining the field of medical sociology. [14] :250

Medical anthropology

Peter Conrad notes that medical anthropology studies some of the same phenomena as medical sociology but argues that medical anthropology has different origins, originally studying medicine within non-western cultures and using different methodologies. [16] :91–92 He argues that there was some convergence between the disciplines, as medical sociology started to adopt some of the methodologies of anthropology such as qualitative research and began to focus more on the patient, and medical anthropology started to focus on western medicine. He argues that more interdisciplinary communication could improve both disciplines. [16] :97

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disease</span> Abnormal condition that negatively affects an organism

A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific signs and symptoms. A disease may be caused by external factors such as pathogens or by internal dysfunctions. For example, internal dysfunctions of the immune system can produce a variety of different diseases, including various forms of immunodeficiency, hypersensitivity, allergies, and autoimmune disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicine</span> Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness

Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Contemporary medicine applies biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics, and medical technology to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and disease, typically through pharmaceuticals or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints and traction, medical devices, biologics, and ionizing radiation, amongst others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Profession</span> Vocation founded upon specialized educational training

A profession is a field of work that has been successfully professionalized. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, professionals, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others.

Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Szasz</span> Hungarian-American psychiatrist and activist (1920–2012)

Thomas Stephen Szasz was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. A distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, as what he saw as the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as scientism.

Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and applied anthropology, and is a subfield of social and cultural anthropology that examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or influenced by issues of health, health care and related issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structural functionalism</span> Sociological theory of society

Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability".

Collegiality is the relationship between colleagues. A colleague is a fellow member of the same profession.

The medical model of disability, or medical model, is based in a biomedical perception of disability. This model links a disability diagnosis to an individual's physical body. The model supposes that this disability may reduce the individual's quality of life and aims to diminish or correct this disability with medical intervention. It is often contrasted with the social model of disability.

Medicalization is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions, and thus become the subject of medical study, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment. Medicalization can be driven by new evidence or hypotheses about conditions; by changing social attitudes or economic considerations; or by the development of new medications or treatments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of health and illness</span> Branch of sociology

The sociology of health and illness, sociology of health and wellness, or health sociology examines the interaction between society and health. As a field of study it is interested in all aspects of life, including contemporary as well as historical influences, that impact and alter our health and wellbeing.

Sick role is a term used in medical sociology regarding sickness and the rights and obligations of the affected. It is a concept created by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1951. The sick role fell out of favour in the 1990s replaced by social constructist theories.

Professionalization is a social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often contested. Professionalization tends to result in establishing acceptable qualifications, one or more professional associations to recommend best practice and to oversee the conduct of members of the profession, and some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs. It is also likely to create "occupational closure", closing the profession to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified.

Patient advocacy is a process in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, concerned with healthcare standards or with one specific group of disorders. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy can refer both to individual advocates providing services that organizations also provide, and to organizations whose functions extend to individual patients. Some patient advocates are independent and some work for the organizations that are directly responsible for the patient's care.

Carl May FAcSS is a British sociologist. He researches in the fields of medical sociology and science and technology studies. Formerly based at Southampton University and Newcastle University, he is now Professor of Medical Sociology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Carl May was elected an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences in 2006. He was appointed a Senior Investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in 2010. His work falls into two distinct themes.

Renée Claire Fox was an American sociologist.

Judith Lorber is professor emerita of sociology and women’s studies at The CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is a foundational theorist of social construction of gender difference and has played a vital role in the formation and transformation of gender studies. She has more recently called for a de-gendering of the social world.

Psychiatry is, and has historically been, viewed as controversial by those under its care, as well as sociologists and psychiatrists themselves. There are a variety of reasons cited for this controversy, including the subjectivity of diagnosis, the use of diagnosis and treatment for social and political control including detaining citizens and treating them without consent, the side effects of treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy, antipsychotics and historical procedures like the lobotomy and other forms of psychosurgery or insulin shock therapy, and the history of racism within the profession in the United States.

Eliot Freidson was a sociologist and medical sociologist who worked on the theory of professions. Charles Bosk says that Freidson was a founding figure in medical sociology who played a major role in the growth and legitimization of the subject. The American Sociological Society awards the Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award for medical sociology every two years.

Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied knowledge is a book by medical sociologist Eliot Freidson published in 1970. It received the Sorokin Award from the American Sociological Association for most outstanding contribution to scholarship, and has been translated into four languages.

References

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Further reading

Brown, Phil (2008). Perspectives in Medical Sociology (4th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. ISBN   978-1-57766-518-2. OCLC   173976504.

Cockerham, William C.; Ritchey, Ferris Joseph (1997). Dictionary of Medical Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN   978-0-313-29269-9. OCLC   35637576.

Conrad, Peter (2007). The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN   978-0-8018-8584-6. OCLC   72774268.

Helman, Cecil (2007). Culture, Health, and Illness (5th ed.). London, England: Hodder Arnold. ISBN   978-0-340-91450-2. OCLC   74966843.Law, Jacky (2006). Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda. New York, NY: Carroll and Graf. ISBN   978-0-7867-1783-5. OCLC   64590433.Levy, Judith A.; Pescosolido, Bernice A. (2002). Social Networks and Health (1st ed.). Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Boston, MA: JAI. ISBN   978-0-7623-0881-1. OCLC   50494394.

Mechanic, David (1994). Inescapable Decisions: The Imperatives of Health Reform. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. ISBN   978-1-56000-121-8. OCLC   28029448.

Rogers, Anne; Pilgrim, David (2005). A Sociology of Mental Health and Illness (3rd ed.). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. ISBN   978-0-335-21584-3. OCLC   60320098.

Scambler, Graham; Higgs, Paul (1998). Modernity, Medicine, and Health: Medical Sociology Towards 2000. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN   978-0-415-14938-9. OCLC   37573644.

Turner, Bryan M. (2004). The New Medical Sociology: Social Forms of Health and Illness. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. ISBN   978-0-393-97505-5. OCLC   54692993.