Essays in Medical Sociology: Journeys into the Field

Abstract

This outstanding collection of essays by Renee C. Fox encompasses almost thirty years of original, pioneering research in the sociology of medicine. Based on fieldwork in a variety of medical settings in the United States, Belgium, Zaire, these ethnographic essays examine chronic terminal illness, medical research, therapeutic innovation, medical education socialization, bio-ethics. Within this framework, three empirical cases have been singled out for special scrutiny--the process of becoming a physician, the development of the artificial kidney machine organ transplantation, the evolution of medical research in Belgium. Without ignoring social structural or psychodynamic factors, Dr. Fox has explored basic cultural phenomena questions associated with health, illness, medicine: values, beliefs, symbols, rites, the nuances of language: ethical existential dilemmas dualities; the complex interrelationships between medicine, science, religion, magic. She draws systematically imaginatively upon anthropological, psychological, historical, biological insights integrates observations analyses from her own studies in American, Western European, Central African societies. This second, augmented edition includes Professor Fox's more recent contributions to the expanding of the sociology of medicine. They are Evolution of Medical Uncertainty; The Human Condition of Health Professionals; Reflections on the Utah Artificial Heart Program; Is Religion Important in Belgium?; Medical Morality is Not Bioethics--Medical Ethics in China the United States; and Medicine, Science Technology. work also includes a new introduction, Endings, Beginnings Continuities. Now, anthropologists, sociologists, medical educators, scientists, researchers, students can join her on her journeys into the field share with her the priceless insights to be gained from the physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, their families, who are working, living, dying on the edge of what is known, scrutable, remediable--on the edge of medical science.