ABSTRACT
Talcott Parsons was the major exponent of a distinctively sociological perspective on health and sickness. Although his particular approach to medical sociology has been the subject of criticism, Parsons' argument that sickness is a social not a biochemical condition provided the basic premise for the sub-discipline. The problem of continuity and discontinuity in Parsons' sociology with respect to both theoretical and substantive issues has been much debated. The importance of Parsons' medical sociology is that it pinpoints a major theoretical and substantive continuity in Parsonian sociology. More importantly, his analysis of sickness and health via the concept of the sick role indicates that sociology does not have to choose between either an action frame of reference or social systems approach. Parsons has often been criticised as the conservative apologist of professional power and elite institutions. Parsons' medical sociology provides a theoretical site on which a more generous re-assessment of Parsonian sociology may be developed.
