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Expert medical decisions in occupational medicine: a sociological analysis of medical judgment

Sociology of Health & IllnessPublished 1 September 1994Open access
Nicolas Dodier
Citations70
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.19
SNIP1.48
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TL;DR

An ethnographic study of expert medical decisions in the field of occupational medicine explores the doctor's role in the attribution of rights to sick people and demonstrates how the ‘psychosomatic frame’ displaces the treatment of physical complaints.

Abstract

Abstract An ethnographic study of expert medical decisions in the field of occupational medicine explores the doctor's role in the attribution of rights to sick people. Two ‘frames’ are displayed: the ‘clinical frame’ and the ‘solicitude frame’. It is demonstrated how these correspond to the status of conditions in medical work doctrines. Then, it is shown how the ‘psychosomatic frame’ displaces the treatment of physical complaints, and how the clinical and solicitude frame exert their presence again in the psychic domain. The meaning of these results for expert medical judgments is discussed, considering comparable work in other areas of medicine.

Keywords

MedicineHealth ProfessionsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance