 Professional constructions of a 'lay' illness: 'Nerves' in a rural 'coloured' community in South AfricaJohn Reynolds and Leslie Swartz Social Science & Medicine, 1993, vol. 36, issue 5, 657-663 Abstract: As part of a larger study, medical practitioners working in Mamre, a 'coloured' village close to Cape Town, South Africa, were interviewed concerning their use of the term 'nerves' in interaction with their patients. Contrary to the initial perception of researchers and some clinicians, the term is not simply a folk category. It does, however, represent a medium through which psychosocial issues are discussed in the clinical encounter. Differences in the usage of the term by different practitioners seemed to indicate different attitudes towards patient care. The data are presented and discussed in the context of debates concerning the development of more accessible and responsive health services in a future South Africa, and the information gleaned has implications for future training of clinicians. Keywords: nerves; South; Africa; illness; negotiation; health; care; provision (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:36:y:1993:i:5:p:657-663 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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