SOC239H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Ian Hacking, Social Constructionism, Alternative Medicine
Document Summary
Illness is affected by the medicalization discourse but more by the individual"s social context (racialization, gender, education, etc) Sickness behaviour is socially mediated: at childbirth, some go to the hospital, some do it home, some go to the hospital at the first sign of labour and others wait until the babies almost ready to come out. Global north + global south: global north. Illness is a choice: with the body/ mind connection, people will decide when to become sick, usual medical treatments (chemotherapy) function to get rid of the weed. Integrative medicine maintains and enhances the soil so that health will flourish. Illness is a result of some despair (emotional experience predates some serious sicknesses: humour is now considered good therapy, using illness to justify some of your inadequacies. Illness as a message of the body: fever, rash inflammation are telling us that the body is undergoing big changes.
