The Demography of Health and Health Care pp 61-89 | Cite as
The Language of Health Care
Abstract
The concepts used to define and organize any health care system reflect the social organization and culture of the particular society. These concepts are a function of the existence of a particular world view involving certain values. Many of the health-related concepts that are so familiar to members of contemporary U.S. society were never even considered in primitive or less developed societies. Notions of “health,” “sickness,” and “disease,” although taken for granted in contemporary Western societies, are social constructs of modern society; they have no counterparts in earlier social systems. For premodern societies, these health states were an inherent part of the nature of things and could not be separately objectified. The concepts related to health and health care that are so basic to an understanding of the U.S. health care system are discussed in the sections that follow, along with other terms necessary for an appreciation of the material in subsequent chapters.
Keywords
Mental Disorder Mental Illness Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Personality Disorder Physical IllnessPreview
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