Synopsis
This volume examines behavioral aspects of human disease, drawing on the perspectives of the social and biological sciences. Dr. Fabrega, a physician with research experience in the social sciences, has witnessed the growth and integration of the social sciences within the field of medicine and sees in these developments a medical revolution of sorts. However, he contends that not enough attention has been given to fundamental aspects of how the social and biological sciences are related in medical research, practice, education, and theory. Disease and Social Behavior attempts to fill this gap.Part I of the book reviews and analyzes the recent literature in the fields of ethnomedicine, social epidemiology, and medical ecology. This critical review of disciplinary approaches in social medicine is extensive enough to serve as a ready syllabus for medical students and other graduate students in both the social and biological sciences. Part II focuses on the analytical foundations of social medicine. Fundamental concepts in social medicine are examined; the meanings of disease, considered both as a biological entity and a behavioral entity, are discussed; and a decision-theoretic model of illness behavior is presented. In Part III the author examines practical as well as theoretical problems in social medicine, including the organization of health care and comparative cross-cultural research in social and psychosomatic medicine.Disease and Social Behavior thus addresses itself simultaneously to the medical student, the practicing physician who wants to keep up with recent developments in social medicine, anthropologists and other social scientists conducting studies of illness in both preliterate and modern settings, and planners involved in "social" or community health care systems. For not only does this book summarize the traditional approaches to disease and reveal their limitations, it also proposes alternative approaches and frameworks in which relevant aspects of social and behavioral science are brought to bear on contemporary medical questions.
Review
"Of great interest to all health professionals who participate in providing medical care to the ill...also of interest to anthropologists and sociologists interested in health problems and how they are managed and interpreted."
—AAAS Science Books & Films
"Concerned with the interface between medicine and social sciences, Fabrega addresses himself to the problems of conceptualizing diseases and our responses to it. In doing so, he provides a comprehensive survey and critique of previous approaches to the problems.... While of use to advanced undergraduates or medical students, its sophisticated theoretical analysis, its 28-page bibliography, and its comprehensive indexing should make it most valuable to graduate students and experts in the field."
—Choice
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
