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Diagnosis

In: Handbook on the Sociology of Health and Medicine

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  • Annemarie Jutel

Abstract

While diagnosis is often considered a simple name applied to a natural fact of disease, it is actually a social label with significant complexities. Diagnosis is medicine’s way of organising the continuum of health and illness by breaking it into manageable categories, determined by consensus, context and culture. In this chapter I will shine a light on these categories and how the validity given them, as well as the process by which they are conferred, is perfused with matters of concern to the critical scholar; power, resources, status and social roles are all firmly influenced by what is named as disease and whomever has the power to apply such names. I use the example of Covid-19 wherever possible to demonstrate how even the most material of diagnoses is still shaped by the socio-cultural context in which the disease is experienced.

Suggested Citation

  • Annemarie Jutel, 2023. "Diagnosis," Chapters, in: Alan Petersen (ed.), Handbook on the Sociology of Health and Medicine, chapter 16, pages 243-256, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19641_16
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    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781839104756.00025
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