Doctor/Patient Relationship

Talcott Parsons was the first social scientist to put forward the doctor-patient relationship. His functionalist, role-based advance defined examination of the doctor-patient relationship for some time to come. He began with the supposition that sickness was an appearance of dysfunctional deviance that necessitated reintegration with the social organism. Sickness, or contrived sickness, excused people from work and other tasks, and therefore was potentially harmful to the social order if uncontrolled. Upholding the social order necessitated the advance of a legitimized sick role to manage this deviance, and make sickness a midway state back to regular role presentation (Hughes, 1994).

According to Parsons, the doctor's role is to symbolize and communicate these norms to the patient in order to manage their deviance. Doctors demonstrate for Parsons the move to affect-neutral associations in modern society, with doctor and patient being protected by emotional detachment. Medical education and social role expectations...
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