The Meaning of Illness (Hardcover)

Intended for ethologists and sociologists, this text examines the problem of defining the "meaning of illness", an interpretation developed within a society which can itself be studied and interpreted from without, from a variety of viewpoints depending on the academic discipline to which observation has been allocated; to ethnology, for example, the observation of linear-based societies; to sociology, that of industrial societies. The fact that these distinctions today are called into question is of little importance. They encourage a questioning of the relationships between the respective methods and objectives of the different disciplines. The local interpretation of illness is one thing, but it is quite possible that the interpretation of this interpretation could vary, depending on whether it was the product of different methods - (anthropological, sociological, historical) or on whether it was applied to different societies. The situation may become even more complicated, since the question can always be raised as to whether types of method and types of society are linked, whether one type of society implies one type of method.