Culture, the 'sick role' and the consumption of health.

Full Abstract

This paper revisits Parsons's conception of the 'sick role' and examines the relevance of his writings on the cultural understanding of sickness to the consumption of health in the contemporary era. In terms of current developments, I focus on the development of pro-active approaches towards the healthy body, and the growth of 'information rich' consumers of health care. These have become prominent themes in sociology, and while Parsons's writings are usually viewed as anachronistic I argue they remain highly pertinent to understanding the emergence of informed, body conscious lay people. If Parsons's analysis of health is more relevant to current circumstances than many critics assume, however, it is not unproblematic. The residual categories associated with the sick role obscure the continued utility of his work on the general cultural values informing health care. It is Parsons's analysis of these values, I suggest, that needs rescuing from restricted understandings of the sick role and highlighting as an important resource for contemporary theorists.

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Author information

Author/s: Shilling, Chris (C);

Affiliation: School of Social Historical and Literary Studies, University of Portsmouth.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comment; Journal Article; Review

Journal: The British journal of sociology (Br J Sociol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Dec; vol 53 (issue 4) : pp 621-38

Dates: Created 2003/01/30; Completed 2003/03/24; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 12556286, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentOn: Milbank Mem Fund Q Health Soc. 1975 Summer;53(3):257-78. (PMID: 1041510)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attitude to Health - ethnology
Culture
Great Britain
Health Promotion
Humans
Patient Education as Topic

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