Sociology of Diagnosis
PJ McGann · David Hutson · Barbara Katz Rothman
Aug 2011 · Emerald Group Publishing
eBook
400
Pages
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About this eBook
Diagnosis is central to medical practice, medical knowledge and research, medicalization dynamics, and health and illness experience. Embedded in social relations, diagnoses reflect and shape social dynamics and cultural concerns. Diagnoses are integral to resource allocation, form the basis for identities, and may become a focal point of turf battles and contested authority. Some diagnoses are willingly embraced, whereas others are strenuously resisted. Some diagnoses come and go as fashions; others persist. A sociological approach to diagnosis therefore occupies a complex intersection of diverse subfields including medical sociology, sociology of knowledge, mental health, deviance, social control, sociology of science, social movements, the body, sexualities, gender, and health and illness. This volume explores the breadth of diagnosis and diagnoses through empirical reports, conceptual work, and theoretical statements from diverse perspectives. Reflecting the multi-faceted nature of the emerging field, the book is arranged in five sections: Frameworks, Context, Contestation, Identity, and Social Control. Sociology of Diagnosis thus provides both a starting point for discussion and means with which to organize the nascent conceptual landscape.
About the author
A professor of sociology at Baruch College of the City University of New York, Barbara Katz Rothman specializes in the fields of reproductive health and childbirth. In particular, she seeks to describe the experience of motherhood within our contemporary, highly technologized, and fixed medical structure. Rothman's more recent books develop this theme while examining specific new procreative technologies and how these technologies act to alter the occasion of childbirth. Rothman is a strong critic of market-based assumptions that define babies as "products of conception." She argues that to treat fetuses simply as objects encased in a woman's uterus does not adequately describe the relationship between mother and child; it only leads to illogical arguments regarding reproductive policy and legal actions against pregnant women who do not follow doctors' orders. Furthermore, Rothman points out that parent's mistakes in childrearing are idiosyncratic, while those of professionals are more dangerous because they are systematic and based on such motivations as ideology, self-interest, or bureaucratic efficiency. Rothman received her B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1969), and an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1979) from New York University. Long associated with the City University of New York and also with the state university, Rothman favors a feminist-centered view of parental rights and responsibilities.
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