Search

This paper reviews the author's experience in becoming a medical sociologist before the field had become formalized. The contributions to medical sociology of sociologist Selden D. Bacon and physician and medical educator William R. Willard are described. The relationship of medical sociology to medical behavioral science, as experienced at the University of Kentucky, is discussed. Finally, the thesis of the author's 1957 paper on the nature and status of medical sociology is re-examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis of this analysis is on the social institutional history of medical sociology. This subfield is described as (1) closely connected with the patterns of development in its current discipline, (2) as containing a dual thrust between applied and basic science, and (3) as struggling with "insider-outsider" ambiguity involving the work of subgroups working either in medicine or from roles external to medicine but studying the sociology of medicine. Tracing a detailed historical fragment from the decade following World War II, it is predicted that the continuity of an accepted position for medical sociology is assured even though the style and quality of its professional life are full of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]