POSTMODERNISM, HEALTH AND ILLNESS

This paper examines the value of drawing on ideas from poststructurali sm and postmodernism in an attempt to understand the relationship betw een health, culture and society. Medical and professional discourses h ave come under increasing criticism for being uncaring, stigmatizing a nd disempowering. This paper supports a postmodernist approach which a llows analysis of the fabrication of 'health', 'illness' and 'patient' subjectivity and the effect of the inscription on the body. It is sug gested that health care professionals need to be more reflexive about their own knowledge claims and to resist the discursive practices whic h disempower and reduce choice.