ABSTRACT
Two studies by Elliott-Binns are among the few dealing with lay therapeutic networks in the UK. Other studies have concentrated on the phenomenon of self-medication. For example in K. Dunnell and A. Cartwright’s large study in 1972, the use of self-prescribed medication was twice as common as the use of prescribed medicines. Self-medication was most commonly taken for temperature, headache, indigestion and sore throats. In the UK, as in other Western societies, the folk sector is relatively small and ill defined. While local faith healers, gypsy fortune tellers, clairvoyants, psychic consultants, herbalists and ‘wise women’ still exist in many rural areas, the forms of diagnosis and healing characteristic of the folk sector are more likely to be found in urban areas, especially in alternative or complementary medicine. In the UK, there are two complementary forms of professional medical care, the National Health Service and private medical care, though there is an overlap of personnel between the two.
