ABSTRACT
The affinity between the medical model and the social control model is a discursive achievement of Parsons which makes sociology a focal discipline in the complex of knowledge that administers modern therapeutic society. Although there is much about the therapeutic society to render this view plausible, it is best not to lose sight of Marx's insistence upon a constantly revised sociology of the industrialization process. The fiscal 'crisis' of the modern state is all the more 'naturally' expressed through the medical metaphor of 'crisis' in as much as the medical and therapeutic services of the state are constantly faced with alternating expansions and cutbacks. Socialists of any stripe will prefer to call for more public provision even though the therapeutic sciences and allied agencies cannot deliver their promise. Medical and sociological nemesis is not the result of a therapeutic conspiracy against society.
