Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 16:31:04 -0500 (EST)
From: William Magee <magee@chass.utoronto.ca>
To: MedSoc@csf.colorado.edu
Subject:  modernization & medicine: need help on concept
Message-ID: <Pine.SGI.3.95.980331160716.23226A-100000@bebop.chass.utoronto.ca>
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Hi,
I assigned   Eugene Gallaghers' (1993) paper in Conrad & Gallagher _Health
& Health Care in Developing Countries_  to my class, and am confused about
how to explain the following paradox to my students (tomorrow). Any
advice?

My reading of Gallaghers' interpretation of Peter Bergers' take on
modernization is that modernity results in (or maybe even is defined by)
individuals concieving themselves as having "an inner biological
uniqueness", as well as personal and moral uniqueness (p. 288). On the
other hand, modern health care tranforms the patient from "a socially
endowed and and identified person into a socially
neutral, clinical case" (p 290). Does anyone know how this paradox is
handeled in modernization theory? -- or should I take this to be a sign of
the weakness of the theory (perhaps indicative of broader problems with
the Functionalism from which the theory is derived)?

Thanks,  Bill Magee
	 Univ. of Toronto