Essay in Medical Sociology : Fitting the Sick Role into the Life Course

概要

論文の詳細を見る
A brief case report describes the situation of an 81-year old man, always in good health and never previously hospitalized, who became a hospital patient in order to have prostate surgery. Although the surgery went well and he was subsequently discharged, he was far from being a "good patient" in the hospital. His case serves as a springboard for focus upon the sick role and socialization into it. It is observed that, for various reasons inherent in the direction and momentum of life course thinking, little attention has been paid by it to the sick role and to chronic illness. This lack is the more notable because much life course research and thinking is in fact "life course gerontology"-- directed toward the social situation of the aged-- but without recognition that the aged are the age cohort who have the greatest prospect and burden of illness. The history and major foci of medical sociology are then compared with the more recent emergence of the life course perspective. This essay proposes that the life course and the sick role "need each other" and raises questions that require attention from both camps.
2005-09-20