Since about 1960 a socio-medical literature has emerged which asserts the importance of truth in the dialogue between dying patient and medical attendant; at the same time the former regime of silence is condemned. This paper argues against the implication that truth and silence are in...

Psychiatry has provided primary care physicians with tools for recognising and labelling mild, moderate or severe 'depression'. General practitioners (GPs) in the UK have been guided to manage depression within primary care and to prescribe anti-depressants as a first-line treatment. The present...

Orthodoxy traditionally manages to control the potential threat from the unorthodox by a strategy of either marginalisation or incorporation. Having for so long marginalised the social sciences, biomedicine now seeks to incorporate them in a new biopsychosocial alliance. The social sciences...

This paper considers the implications of genetic testing in the case of familial hypercholesterolaemia, drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews with general practitioners (family doctors in primary care), nurses and specialists in hospital clinics (secondary care) in the UK. Though these...

ARMSTRONG D. (1999) Hidden male unemployment in Northern Ireland, Reg. Studies 33 , 499-511. In recent years there has been growing research evidence in the UK to suggest that official unemployment figures do not accurately reflect the true extent of joblessness, mainly because they ignore...

Deference to the importance of the patient's view has recently become a major feature of much medical practice and social science research. This paper, however, argues that attempts to establish the authentic version of what the patient says is misplaced as investigation can only reveal what is...

From the novel geography of the health centre to the meticulous concerns of appointment systems and patient records, British general practice, as this paper documents, has reordered its traditional activities over the last 30 years. These changes however suggest a more profound reorganisation of...

Limited availability of irrigation water has placed pressure on farmers and water authorities to improve the efficiency of their operations. ‗Modernisation‘ of irrigation infrastructure systems is occurring throughout Australia in order to improve system delivery efficiency and...

The chapters contributed to this book have been written by the staff and associates of The Tavistock Consultancy Service, whose distinctive competence is in the human dimension of enterprise and the dynamics of the workplace. The intention is to identify and explore some of the key themes that...