ABSTRACT
As described in the previous chapter, those who practice modern scientific medicine form a group apart, with their own values, theories of disease, rules of behaviour and organization into a hierarchy of specialized roles. The medical profession can be seen as a healing ‘subculture’, with its own particular world view. In the process of medical education, students undergo a form of enculturation whereby they gradually acquire a perspective on ill health that will last throughout their professional life. They also acquire a high social status, high earning power and the socially legitimized role of healer, which carries with it certain rights
and obligations. Some of the basic premises of this medical perspective are:
1 Humanitarian outlook. 2 Scientific rationality. 3 The emphasis on objective, numerical measure-
ment. 4 The emphasis on physicochemical data. 5 Mind-body dualism. 6 The view of diseases as entities. 7 Reductionism. 8 The emphasis on the individual patient, rather
than on the family or community.
