ABSTRACT
The problem on which we wish to dwell is one about which we think we know a great deal but that, in reality, we know so little – how and why an individual seeks professional medical aid. The immediate and obvious answer is that a person goes to a doctor when he is sick. Yet, this term “sick”, is much clearer to those who use it, namely the health practitioners and the researchers, than it is to those upon whom we apply it – the patients. Two examples may illustrate this point. Listen carefully to the words of a respondent in Koos’ study of the Health of Regionville as she wrestled with a definition of this concept.
