ABSTRACT
Health programs generally derive from scientific progress and scientific recommendations. This chapter outlines the nature of the group opposition, attempts to delineate its features, and identifies some of the psychodynamic and sociodynamic factors which are involved in its existence. Since health legislation is ordinarily introduced only after having been first recommended or endorsed by responsible scientific authorities, it is not surprising to find that, in the opposition which develops, the part which is based on rational considerations tends to occupy a considerably narrower band on the spectrum than that which is irrational and unconsciously motivated or else deliberately dishonest. Some of the most powerful opposition to polio vaccination and water fluoridation has come from groups whose vested interests bring them into direct conflict with the theories of organized medicine and dentistry.
