Epidemiology as an investigative paradigm: The College of General Practitioners in the 1950s

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the research investigations of the College of General Practitioners in Britain in the 1950s. Beginning with a discussion of Michel Foucault's concept of ‘pastoral power’, the paper proceeds to analyse the ways in which the College attempted to set up an epidemiological scrutiny of general practices across Britain; from practice by practice observational studies to the first National Morbidity Study. The paper concludes by arguing that the epidemiological paradigm in general practice was beset by particular internal ‘limits’, and was replaced increasingly from the 1960s by an emphasis upon psychotherapeutic approaches.