Sociology of Healing, Health, Illness

Instructor: Joseph P. Ferry, MA.

ferry@tenebrae.org

Syllabus

Course Description:

This course of studies will be about the emergence of the modern notions of health, illness, healing and care, and how those conditions and activities have become embedded in distinct institutions. We will study the social institutions and systems within which the management of as well as the definition of fitness, suffering and death are mediated. We will look at vernacular ways of tending to the sick and dying, and we will look at modernized systems, with emphasis on social and cultural institutions, beliefs and customs that are applied to the sick, the halt, the lame and dying.

In the course of our studies we will look at development of a single profession around which most health care in western societies is organized - medicine. We will examine the historical and social emergence of doctoring and drugging as primary health care practices.

We will look at nursing as a distinct set of healing activities. And we will consider healing professions and practices such as surgery, talking therapies, midwifery, faith healing, acupuncture, herbalism, exorcisms, blood-letting, voodoo, curanderismo, reflexology, reiki and other subdominant approaches to diagnosis and healing.

We will consider pain, suffering, stigma and handicap, illness and disease, psychosis and possession, and compare such experiences, and the meaning of such experiences in other times and cultures.

Course Objectives

Students will acquire a deeper understanding of the complex of social tradition, heritage, law, healing and sickening relationships and activities, scourges, epidemics and experiences that form the background for our health care system.

Students will develop their understanding of the organization, funding, and governance of health care delivery and health care policy as it is be elaborated in the post-modern United States, in other societies and nations, and within an increasingly globalized economy.

Students will be able to articulate an understanding of the notions of "health", "sickness", "care", "disease".

Students will understand the rise of systems theory and analysis as a particular way of understanding complex social patterns of activity. Also students will gain a sense of the limitations of systems theory.

We will examine the structure, functions  and norms that are associated with the changing idea of 'health and disease'.

Students will be able to make a distinction between individual change and social change.

Students will move toward a deeper understanding of the social conditions that generate illness and disease.

We will examine theories of iatrogenic disease - illness that is caused by the institutions established to cure.

Students will examine economic conditions and the relationship of economic patterns and ways of making a living to the development of disease as well as the development of cures. We will study the relationship between retirement saving of workers in the United States and the availability of medicines for HIV treatment in Zimbabwe.

Required Texts:

Medical Sociology, Eighth Edition, by William Cockerham, Prentice Hall. ISBN# 0-13-016557-3.

It will be required to get on Internet and go to this location:
http://chc.blackboard.com
sign up (free) for an account with CHC.BLACKBOARD.COM, by contacting Mr. Wadlinger in Chestnut Hill's academic computing office in the basement of St. Joe's hall, across from bookstore. After getting account name and password, go on internet to the course called "Health and Society"  UESO210 that is in "http://chc.blackboard.com" (notice that it is not "www" after the "http://"). On this site you will find syllabus, assignments, readings, tests, your grades for this class, and the class's internet discussion board. You will need to use this site frequently during course.

Ancillary texts (don't buy, they will be available in library)

Medical Nemesis, The Expropriation of Health, by Ivan Illich, 1999 Boyars Press

The Social Transformation of American Medicine, by Paul Starr, Basic Books/Harper, ISBN# 0-465-07935-0
This text is available in CHC bookstore

Culture, Disease and Healing, Studies in Medical Anthropology, by David Landy, 1977, Macmillan Press

Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture, by Arthur Kleinman, UC Press, Berkeley

Beliefs, Behaviors and Alcoholic Beverages, A cross-cultural Survey, Mac Marshall, editor,  U. Mich. Press

All Sickness is Home Sickness, Diane Connelly, 1976 ISBN 0912381027

Other necessary readings will be distributed in class or be available in library or the internet.

Student requirements

1.  STUDY readings. Each week there will be readings in the text that will cover subject areas that will be the focus areas of class discussion.

2. Full attendance at all classes, preparation and participation in class discussions.

3. WRITE. Every week students will need to write between one and three statements, one to three hundred words in length. This will occur in  electronic blackboard discussions. Each student must make one posting (and no more than three postings) to our class discussions in  web site.

4. Submit a report on independent research.   In addition to body of paper, there will be a title page, an abstract (which will include a summary discussion of topic and an explanation of one's research methodology), and a bibliography. Papers are to be formatted according to APA. Topic of research will be assigned in class.

5. Take tests. There will be two tests given during course. All tests must be taken on time. There will be no late tests available, and no make-up tests. Tests will cover readings in text, assigned articles, and classroom discussions. There will be no final comprehensive exam.

Grading basis

Students will be able to accumulate a maximum of four hundred points during the session:

Each of the  tests will be worth 100 points.
Students will gain 80 points for full attendance at each of the 16 meetings of the class, and for full participation in weekly net discussions and projects.
Students will receive up to 20 points awarded by teacher for scholarly participation and collegiality.
Students can gain 100 points for their research project:

Number grade can be calculated by dividing the total number of points by 4. Letter grades will be computed according to policy in Chestnut Hill College Handbook.

Evaluations

Evaluations of tests and papers will be based on evidence of your effort, signs of comprehension, and your performance:
Evidence of effort  - indication of acquaintance with ideas of authors, writers assigned in readings. 

Acquisition of mastery - signs that you comprehend the notions, theories, perspectives, and limitations of the thinkers that you are exploring.

Performance - your ability to collect, organize and communicate the matter of the course.