Year: 1996
Type: article
Abstract: The sociological conceptualisation of chronic illness requires a sociology which indicates the physicality of the body theoretically. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the body might be integrated into sociological accounts of the experience of chronic illness in a way that acknowledges biological and social facts. Central to our argument is the connection between bodily aspects of self and identity. Self and identity are core aspects of everyday experience and of the everyday experience of illness. With the onset of illness bodily functioning alters and self‐conceptions and identity may also change. The body, which in many social situations is a taken for granted aspect of the person, ceases to be taken for granted once it malfunctions. The bodily basis of chronic illness has to be attended to because it limits or interferes with other physical and social activities. The connection between biological and social facts is explored using the concepts of self and identity.
Source: Sociology of Health & Illness
Authors: Michael P. Kelly, David Field
Institutions: University of Greenwich, University of Ulster
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2115417559