Professional paper
THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIETAL CONSTRUCTIONISM: SOME IMPLICATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH ESTABLISHING PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH, ILLNESS AND BEHAVIOUR OF PATIENTS
Živka Staničić
; School of Medicine, University of Split; Department: Physician and Patient
Abstract
The basic interest of societal constructionism for a 'subjective experience of everyday life' extrapolated within the field of the research of physical and mental health, illnes and behaviour of patients has brought with some productive knowledge: a) health and illnes are not only a part of the natural reality but also a societal construct, 'artefacts' of societal procesess; b) societal and cultural diferences are established not only with the help of how will a person perceive and interpret symptoms of illness, but also on the etiology and nosology of illnesess, ways of participating within the programmes of health care; when, how and which services will be used, what strategy of health recovery will be chosen; who in a society has the legitimity for establishing physical/mental changes as symptoms, and how wil they be named and classified; c) the perception of symptoms on the part of the patient should not be neglected, nor substitued for objective, technical, empirical, laboratory and chemical finds, on the contrary, the laymen explanatory systems should be regarded as functional and therefore should gain an equal status, not as up to now, mainly that of a second–rated cognitive and epistemiological status. In other words, for a successful therapy, it is of extreme importance to establish a connection between a layman health diagnosis and that of natural sciences, as well as the establishment of the diagnosis of illnesses and treatment methods.
Keywords
health as a societal construct; illness as a societal construct; layman explanatory systems
Hrčak ID:
139500
URI
Publication date:
15.9.2002.
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