ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea that specific forms of membership or participation in society may account for the failure of the writers to maintain consistent attention on the definitional process. In examining the puzzling pattern of unrealized value-conflict theory, it is helpful to consider examples of the social definitional approach in sociology. The chapter briefly characterizes the parallels between the development of value-conflict and labeling theories and the similar difficulties they have encountered. The labeling theory or deviance has been the standard-bearer of the social definitional approach in sociology generally, and it has borne the brunt of the criticism of this form of theorizing. The chapter discusses three kinds of membership: sociologists as ordinary members of society, as members of a profession, and as participants in the definitional process itself. It examines a case of interprofessional competition in which the sociological profession moved from a position of, bemused spectatorship to that of active participation in the definition of mental disorders.
