Picking up on the recent emails to the list by Alison and Emma (both
Smiths - are they related? Is this the Matrix?), maybe it would be
helpful for us as a group to specify together some of the many reasons
we think that the medical model persists? Here are some:
- it is superficially 'scientific' and so gains some of the authority
and prestige accorded to scientific explanations generally
- it accords with our culture's ready preference for technological
solutions to problems of various kinds
- it thus appears within an optimistic arc of possible future progress,
so offering (misplaced) hope
- it promises a quick, simple, expert solution to people's problems
- it minimises the blame, guilt, and shame of individuals by presenting
their difficulties as purely technical 'hardware faults'
- it reduces potential conflict between those distressed and those
working with them, by generating an (illusory, inappropriate) focus for
consultations and interventions
- it similarly allows families and relatives to more readily absolve
themselves of responsibility
- it is shored up by the immense resources of powerful institutions,
whose various interests it serves
And I'm sure there's much more than can be said than this...
J.
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John Cromby
School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Loughborough University
Loughborough, Leics
LE11 3TU England
Tel: 01509 223000
Email: [log in to unmask]
Personal webpage: http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~hujc4/
Co-Editor, "Subjectivity": www.palgrave-journals.com/sub
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