ABSTRACT
The key point in this book is that a complete philosophical shift will be necessary, if chronicity is to be dealt with adequately. Tertiary care is aimed at treatment and thus tends to deal with chronic disease only after manifestation, and often in its final stages. But the stress on physiology originates from the primacy that is given in the biomedical model to biological theory. The biomedical model is illustrated to represent a symbolic reality, rather than a scientific fact. Professional standards review organizations, health systems agencies, community-based health programs and treatment facilities, and, most recently, a raft of state health plans have been proposed to give consumers a voice in determining the growth of services and facilities. The philosophical side of democratization was never explored, and thus the epistemological, social, and cultural prerequisites of democracy were never given any attention.
