NAMING AND FRAMING - THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DIAGNOSIS AND ILLNESS

This paper examines the social construction of diagnosis and illness i n several ways. First, I discuss the centrality of social construction in medical sociology. Next I discuss the major role of diagnosis iii social construction, leaning to the need for a sociology of diagnosis. I emphasize controversial and conflictual diagnoses, as a first step toward a more general sociology of diagnosis. Then I put forth a typol ogy of social construction, involving four combinations based on wheth er a condition is generally accepted and whether a biomedical definiti on is applied. Next I derail a series of stages in the social construc tion of a condition. In that process, my primary concern is the initia l social discovery, which is essentially a matter of diagnosis, with a secondary emphasis on illness experience. This is followed by stages of treatment and outcome, which recursively affect social construction . I conclude by noting the health policy implications of the social co nstructionist perspective.