REVIEW PAPER
To tell the truth. A critical trend in medical sociology – an introduction to the problems
 
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Medical Sociology and Sociology of Family, Institute of Sociology, Maria Curie - Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland
 
2
Independent Medical Sociology Unit, Medical University in Lublin, Poland
 
3
Chair of Sociology of Ethnic Groups and Civil Society, Institute of Sociology, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
 
 
Corresponding author
Włodzimierz Piątkowski   

Independent Medical Sociology Unit, Medical University in Lublin, Poland
 
 
Ann Agric Environ Med. 2013;20(3):613-623
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction and objective:
The presented analysis is a reconstruction of the origins, inspirations for development, and theoretical foundations of the critical and unmasking trend in Polish and Western medical sociology.

Abbreviated description of the state of knowledge:
As a part of the critical medical sociology initiated in Poland by Professor Magdalena Sokołowska, a diagnosis of the (dys)functionality of contemporary medicine is carried out, emphasizing pathologies in the realization of its basic social functions, both at the level of systemic and institutional solutions, as well as stressing their consequences which include inter alia social health inequalities. Within the critical sociomedical research orientation, the diagnoses of the social role of medicine and distortions in the ways it is exercised are placed in the broad structural, political, and cultural contexts, which makes it possible to point to the principal causes of the analyzed phenomena.

Summary:
The crucial ‘value added’ of critical sociological analyses of medicine and health policy are directives intended to humanize medicine and health systems in contemporary societies, taking social and cultural realities into consideration. We understand the humanization of medicine in terms of its better adjustment to human needs that emerge in the situations of illness and being ill, with the simultaneous guarantee of universal and equal access to medical services.

 
REFERENCES (48)
1.
Gerhardt U. Ideas about illness. An intellectual and political history of medical sociology. New York: New York University Press, 1989: xxiii.
 
2.
Straus R. The nature and status of medical sociology. Am Soc Rev. 1957; 22(2): 200–204.
 
3.
Freidson E. The development of design by accident. In: R.H. Elling, M. Sokołowska (eds.), Medical sociologists at work. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books 1978: 127.
 
4.
Parsons T. The social system. New York: The Free Press, 1966: 428–479.
 
5.
Field MG. System zdrowia a system społeczny (Health system and social system). In: Sokołowska M, Hołówka J, Ostrowska A. (eds). Socjologia a zdrowie (Sociology and health). Warszawa: PWN, 1976: 133–154 (in Polish).
 
6.
Bird CE, Conrad P, Fremont AM. Medical sociology at the millennium. In: Bird CE, Conrad P, Fremont AM. (eds.). Handbook of medical sociology, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000:1, 8.
 
7.
Goffman E. Instytucje totalne. O pacjentach szpitali psychiatrycznych i mieszkańcach innych instytucji totalnych (Total institutions. About patients of psychiatric hospitals and other total institutions; original title: Asylums), transl. O. Waśkiewicz, J. Łaszcz. Sopot: GWP 2011 (in Polish).
 
8.
McKinlay JB., McKinlay SM. Medical measures and the decline of mortality. In: P. Conrad (ed.), The sociology of health and illness. Critical perspectives. New York: Worth Publishers 2001: 7–19.
 
9.
Skrzypek M. Medycyna w polu badań socjologii choroby, zdrowia i medycyny w kontekście niemedykocentrycznej orientacji badawczej subdyscypliny (Medicine in the research field of the sociology of illness, health and medicine in the context of the subdiscipline’s non-medicocentric research orientation). Przegl Socjol. 2012; LXI(2): 155–176 (in Polish).
 
10.
Sokołowska M. Socjologia medycyny (The sociology of medicine). Warszawa: PZWL, 1986: 10–11,43–45,106–107,111,127–139,219–224,227–228 (in Polish).
 
11.
Słońska Z, Piątkowski W. The sociology of health and medicine in Poland, Salute e Societa, 2012; XI(2): 73–88.
 
12.
Shepard JM. Sociology, Third Ed., St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, S. Francisco: West Publ. Co., 1987: 7–8,39–40.
 
13.
Szacki J. Historia myśli socjologicznej (The history of sociological thought). Part I. Warszawa: PWN, 1981: 174–175 (in Polish).
 
14.
Mucha J. Socjologia jako krytyka społeczna. Orientacja radykalna i krytyczna we współczesnej socjologii zachodniej (Sociology as social criticism. The radical and critical orientation in contemporary Western sociology). Warszawa: PWN, 1986: 9, 62, 67–68, 73, 198–199 (in Polish).
 
15.
Olechnicki K, Załęcki P. Słownik socjologiczny (Dictionary of sociology). Toruń: Wyd. Graffiti BC., 1997: 79 (in Polish).
 
16.
Mucha J. Socjologia krytyczna (Critical sociology). In: Bokszański Z. et al. (eds.). Encyklopedia socjologii (Encyclopedia of sociology). Vol. 4. Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa, 2002: 71 (in Polish).
 
17.
Edwards G, Habermas J. Politics and morality in health and medicine. In: Scambler G. (eds.). Contemporary theorists for medical sociology. New York, London: Routledge, 2012: 34, 41, 46–47.
 
18.
Piątkowski W, Skrzypek M. The social nature of health and illness – evolution of research approaches in Polish classical medical sociology. Ann Agric Environ Med. 2012; 19(4): 821–835.
 
19.
Sokołowska M. Zastosowania socjologii w medycynie (Applications of sociology in medicine). In: Podgórecki A. (ed.). Socjotechnika – praktyczne zastosowania socjologii (Sociotechnics – practical applications of sociology). Warszawa: KiW;1968: 243–262 (in Polish).
 
20.
Podgórecki A. Miejsce socjotechniki w ustroju socjalistycznym (The place of sociotechnics in the socialist system). In: Podgórecki A. (ed.). Socjotechnika – praktyczne zastosowania socjologii (Sociotechnics – practical applications of sociology). Warszawa: KiW, 1968: 17–20,22,47 (in Polish).
 
21.
Ostrowska A. Polska socjologia medycyny na tle zachodniej [Polish medical sociology as compared with Western medical sociology). In: Piątkowski W. (ed.), Zdrowie – choroba – społeczeństwo. Studia z socjologii medycyny (Health – illness –society. Studies in medical sociology) Wyd. UMCS, Lublin 2004: 31 (in Polish).
 
22.
Illich I. Medical nemesis. The expropriation of health. London: Calder and Boyars, 1975: 15–31.
 
23.
Waitzkin H. Changing patient-physician relationship in the changing health-policy environment. In: Bird C., Conrad P., Fremont A. (eds.). Handbook of medical sociology. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000: 280–282.
 
24.
Navarro V. Class struggle, the state and medicine. Oxford: Martin Robertson Ed., 1978.
 
25.
Piątkowski W., Nowakowska L. System medyczny w Polsce wobec wyzwań XXI wieku. Perspektywa krytycznej socjologii zdrowia i choroby (The medical system in Poland in the face of 21 st century challenges. The prospect of the critical sociology of health and illness). Przegl Socjol. 2012; LXI(2): 11–29 (in Polish).
 
26.
Sokołowska M. Granice medycyny (Limits to medicine) Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1980: 147–154,156,166–177,183–186,191–198,199–202 (in Polish).
 
27.
Freidson E. Profession of medicine. A study of the sociology of applied knowledge. New York–Hagerstown–San Francisco-London: Harper and Row Publishers 1970: 205,288–291.
 
28.
Freidson E. Patient’s views of medical practice. A study of subscribers to a prepaid medical plan in the Bronx, Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press 1980: 146–147.
 
29.
Zavestoski S, Brown P, McCormick S, Mayer B, D’Ottavi M, Lucove J.C. Patient activism and the struggle for diagnosis: Gulf War illnesses and other medically unexplained physical symptoms in the US. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 58(1): 161–175.
 
30.
Brown P, Morello-Frosch R, Zavestoski S. et al. Health social movements: advancing traditional medical sociology concepts. In: Pescosolido BA, Martin JK, McLeod JD, Rogers A. (eds.). Handbook of the sociology of health, illness, and healing. A blueprint for the 21 st century. New York: Springer 2011: 117–137.
 
31.
Ostrowska A. Paternalizm czy partnerstwo? Relacje między lekarzami a pacjentami w Europie (Paternalism or partnership? Relations between physicians and patients in Europe). In: H. Domański, A. Ostrowska, P.B. Sztabiński (eds), W środku Europy? Wyniki Europejskiego Sondażu Społecznego (In the middle of Europe? The results of European sociological survey). Warszawa: Wyd. IFiS PAN 2006: 185–200 (in Polish).
 
32.
Ostrowska A. Modele relacji lekarz–pacjent (Models of doctor-patient relationships). In: A. Ostrowska (ed.), Socjologia medycyny. Podejmowane problemy, kategorie analizy (Medical sociology. Undertaken problems, categories of analysis). Warszawa: Wyd. IFiS PAN 2009: 235–259 (in Polish).
 
33.
Piątkowski W, Skrzypek M. Utilization of non-medical healing methods as a way of coping with life difficulties in the socially deprived ‘losers’ of the systemic transformation processes in Poland. Ann Agric Environ Med. 2012; 19(1): 147–157.
 
34.
Piątkowski W. Beyond medicine: non-medical methods of treatment in Poland. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2012.
 
35.
Timmermans S, Oh H. The continued transformation of the medical profession. J Health Soc Behav. 2010; 51 Suppl: S94-S106.
 
36.
Hardey M. Doctor in the house: the Internet as a source of lay health knowl-edge and the challenge to expertise. Soc Health Ill. 1999; 21(6): 820–835.
 
37.
Ruggie M. Learning from other countries: comparing experiences and drawing lessons for the United States. In: Pescosolido BA, Martin JK, McLeod JD, Rogers A. (eds.). Handbook of the sociology of health, illness, and healing. A blueprint for the 21 st century. New York: Springer 2011: 86–88, 91, 96–97.
 
38.
Conrad P. The rise and fall of the dominance of medicine. In: Conrad P. (ed.). The sociology of health and illness. Critical perspectives. New York: Worth Publishers 2001: 153–155.
 
39.
Freidson E. Viewpoint: sociology and medicine: a polemic. Soc Health Ill. 1983; 5: 208–219.
 
40.
Gray BH, Phillips SR. Medical sociology and health policy: where are the connections? J Health Soc Behav. 1995; Extra Issue: 170–181.
 
41.
Waitzkin H. The second sickness: contradictions of capitalist health care. New York, London: The Free Press, 1983: 4–5, 8, 214.
 
42.
Jones IR. Health care decision making and the politics of health. In: Scambler G. (ed.). Habermas, critical theory and health. London and New York: Routledge, 2001: 82.
 
43.
Sokołowska M, Hołówka J, Ostrowska A. (eds). Socjologia a zdrowie (Sociology and health). Warszawa: PWN, 1976 (in Polish).
 
44.
Bizoń Z. Wzorce adaptacji systemu medycznego do zmian społecznych (Patterns of adaptation of the medical systems to social changes). In: Sokołowska M, Hołówka J, Ostrowska A. (eds.). Socjologia a zdrowie (Sociology and health). Warszawa: PWN, 1976: 107–132 (in Polish).
 
45.
Hankin JR, Wright ER. Reflections on fifty years of medical sociology. J Health Soc Behav. 2010; 51(S): S10-S14.
 
46.
Wilensky GR. Re-engineering health systems: The U.S. experience, Soc Sci Med. 2012; 74: 674–676.
 
47.
Wright ER, Perry BL. Medical sociology and health services research: past accomplishments and future policy challenges. J Health Soc Behav. 2010; 51 Suppl: S107-S119.
 
48.
Mechanic D, McAlpine DD. Sociology of health care reform: building on research and analysis to improve health care. J Health Soc Behav. 2010; 51 Suppl: S147-S159.
 
eISSN:1898-2263
ISSN:1232-1966
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top