Sick Role' or 'Empowerment'? The Ambiguities of Life with an HIV Positive Diagnosis

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2248459
AutoresMichele L Crossley (Edge Hill University, autor correspondente), Michele Crossley
Ano1998
Volume20
Fascículo4
Páginas507-531
Data de publicação1998-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.00113
OpenAlexW1999541435
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas59

This paper addresses the relevance of Parsons' concept of the 'sick role' to the experience of illness in contemporary society by building on recent research, which suggests that the increasing predominance of chronic disease changes the temporal structure of the experience of illness. This has important implications for the structure of social expectations and obligations associated with the 'sick role'. In particular, recent advocates of 'insider' views of illness and the related promotion of ideologies of 'patient empowerment' have contested assumptions of dependency implicit within the concept of the 'sick role', presenting a far more 'independent' and 'proactive' vision of the sick individual. With specific application to a group of people living relatively long term with an HIV positive diagnosis, this paper addresses some of the implicit ambiguities manifest in the self-empowerment ethos, highlighting some implicit dependencies underlying the rhetoric of empowerment and concluding that a more structural analysis of illness experiences, such as that proposed by Parsons, may be apposite

Empowerment · Epistemology · Ethos · Health care · Ideology · Insider · MEDLINE · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sick role · Sociology · Sociology of health and illness · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Medicine · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Social Psychology