Sufferings and illness in a cultural context
Sufferings and illness are universal attributes which come to be endowed with cultural meaning. The cross-cultural framework of illness is appropriate in the comparative study.
Cultural understanding of illness
They offer a cultural understanding of illness across diverse cultural settings which are addressed by a number of medical anthropology studies. The cultural meaning of illness is delivered from the community’s cultures and the perception of the illnesses. These cultural beliefs dictate which illness will be stigmatized, which ones are considered disabilities, and which are considered contestable as opposed to the biological point of view.
Social constructions of illnesses
The social constructions define illness through social meaning that is placed on the conditions. Social constructions of illnesses identify the facts that the illnesses are embedded on the cultural meaning as opposed to a natural condition and shape the perception of the society in the way the community responds to those affected and influences the experiences of that illness (Conrad and Barker S67). In this perception, medical knowledge does not influence the nature and meaning constructed by the claims rather the personal beliefs shape the opinion regarding the diseases or the condition.
Social construction of medical knowledge
Medical knowledge is socially constructed as it is based on the society’s influence on the evolution of medical science. Medial knowledge is in this case socially constructed which implies that it can reflect and reproduce inequalities in ethnicity, race, gender, and class. For example, women are discouraged from smoking and drinking when pregnant in fear of harming the unborn baby, much as they were disparaged from driving when pregnant for fear of harming the baby in the 19th century.
Social and medical construction of depression
Depression is one of the sicknesses that is socially and medically constructed. The mental condition results from chronic stress that lasts for a long time and affects the normal functionalities of a person. Socially, people attribute depression to normal stress and fail to understand the biological part of it. In most cases, in a social context, the condition is not treated, as the majority of people do not consider it as an illness. However, the same condition is medically constructed, showing biological effects on the brains; hence, it is treated with scientific knowledge.
Work Cited
Conrad, Peter, and Kristin K. Barker. "The Social Construction of Illness: Key Insights and Policy Implications." Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 51, no. 1, 2010, pp. S67-S79.
