General Introduction
Toward a Sociology of Health and Illness
The increase in medical sociology courses and the number of medical socio-
logical journals now extant are but two indicators of rapid development in
this field.1 The knowledge base of medical sociology expanded apace so that
this discipline moved in less than two decades from an esoteric subspecialty
taught in a few graduate departments to a central concern of sociologists and
sociology students. The causes of this growth are too many and too complex
to be within the scope of this book. However, a few of the major factors
underlying this development are noted below.
The rise of chronic illness as a central medical and social problem has led
physicians, health planners, and public health officials to look to sociology
for help in understanding and dealing with this major health concern. In
addition, increased government involvement in medical care has created re-
search opportunities and funding for sociologists to study the organization
and delivery of medical care. Sociologists have also become increasingly in-
volved in medical education, as evidenced by the large number of sociologists
currently on medical school faculties. Further, since the 1960s the social and
political struggles over health and medical care have become major social
issues, thus drawing additional researchers and students to the field. Indeed,
some sociologists have come to see the organization of medicine and the way
medical services are delivered as social problems in themselves. In recent
years, sociologists have been deeply involved in research on how to prevent
HIV-AIDS and best stem the AIDS epidemic.
Traditionally, the sociological study of illness and medicine has been called
simply medical sociology. Strauss (1957) differentiated between sociology
"of" medicine and sociology "in" medicine. Sociology of medicine focuses on
the study of medicine to illuminate some sociological concern (e.g., pa~tient-
practitioner relationships, the role of professions in society). Sociology in
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