Tranquillisers as Social Control

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3556587
AutoresJonathan Gabe (0000-0002-3765-4935), Susan Lipshitz–phillip, Susan Lipshitz‐Phillips, Susan Lipshitz–Phillips
Ano1984
Volume32
Fascículo3
Páginas524-546
Data de publicação1984-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-954x.1984.tb00825.x
OpenAlexW1964413293
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas27

In this paper we use findings from an empirical study of the meaning of tranquilliser prescribing and use to examine the contention that these drugs are a means of social control, and to assess the explanatory value of the concept of social control when applied to the doctor-patient relationship. We first outline the historical application of the concept to the health field, specify the cultural mechanisms by which social control is said to be achieved and look at the ways in which the mechanisms are thought to operate through the prescribing of the most widely used kind of tranquilliser/hypnotic-benzodiazepines (e.g. Valium, Mogadon). We then draw on our data to see how far they substantiate the arguments which have been developed. In the final section of the paper we suggest some alternative explanations regarding the nature of doctors' power and of patient dependence. We also discuss problems involved in conceptualizing gender and class ideologies, note an inherent tendency towards an over-socialized view of the person and assess the usefulness of functionalist explanations stemming from the application of the social control concept to the doctor-patient relationship

Control (management) · Epistemology · Explanatory power · Field (mathematics) · Ideology · Meaning (existential) · Positive economics · Power (physics) · Psychotherapist · Social control · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Computer Science · Law · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social Psychology