EXPERT MEDICAL DECISIONS IN OCCUPATIONAL-MEDICINE - A SOCIOLOGICAL-ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL JUDGMENT

An ethnographic study of expert medical decisions in the field of occu pational medicine explores the doctor's role in the attribution of rig hts to sick people. Two 'frames' are displayed: the 'clinical frame' a nd 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 comp laints, 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 a reas of medicine.