Abstract
This paper outlines a widely-held conception of illness, related to perceived changes in body temperature — ‘Chills’ and ‘Colds’ on one hand, ‘Fevers’ on the other — in an English suburban community on the outskirts of London. The relationship between this folk model, and that of the local family physicians is analysed, to show how biomedical treatment and concepts, particularly the germ theory of disease, far from challenging the folk model, actually reinforce it. Remedies which cannot be scientifically and biomedically justified are nevertheless prescribed by the physicians to meet their patients' need to ‘make sense’ of biomedical treatment in terms of their folk model of illness. At the interface between physician and patient, biomedical diagnoses and treatment are more ‘negotiable’ than previously realised — and this has important implications for the delivery of health care.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blacow, Norman W. 1972 Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia, 26th Edition. London: Pharmaceutical Press. P. 228.
Byrne, Patrick S. and Barrie Long 1976 Doctors Talking to Patients: A Study of the Verbal Behaviour of General Practitioners Consulting in their Surgeries. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Pp. 93–94.
Camp, John 1976 Therapeutic Mud-Slinging. World Medicine 11: 70–76.
Cartwright, Ann and Maureen O'Brien 1976 Social class variations in health care and in the nature of general practitioner consultations. In The Sociology of the National Health Service, Margaret Stacey, ed. London: Croom Helm. Pp. 77–94.
Cassell, Eric J. 1976 The Healer's Art: A New Approach to the Doctor-Patient Relationship. New York: Lippincott. Pp. 47–83.
Chatton, M. J., Sheldon Margen and H. Brainerd, eds. 1970 Handbook of Medical Treatment. Los Altos: Lange. pp. 5–6.
Crystal, David 1976 The diagnosis of sociolinguistic problems in doctor patient interaction. In Language and Communication in Medical Practice, B. Tanner, ed. London: Hodder and Stoughton. P. 49.
Douglas, Mary 1970 Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Penguin Books.
Dunnell, Karen and Ann Cartwright 1972 Medicine Takers, Prescribers, and Hoarders. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Eisenberg, Leon 1977 Disease and illness: Distinctions between professional and popular ideas of sickness. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1: 9–23.
Fabrega, Horacio 1973 Illness and Shamanistic Curing in Zinancantan: An Ethnomedical Analysis. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Fabrega, Horacio 1975 The need for an ethnomedical science. Science 189: 969–975.
Foster, George M. 1976 Disease aetiologies in non-Western medical systems. American Anthropologist 78: 773–781.
Fox, Renee C. 1968 Illness. In International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 7: 90–95. New York: Free Press/Macmillan.
Garrod, Lawrence P. and Francis O'Grady 1968 Antibiotics and Chemotherapy. London: Livingstone. Pp. 255, 427.
Gill, Derek G. 1976 The reorganisation of the National Health Service: Some sociological aspects with special references to the role of the community physician. In The Sociology of the National Health Service. Margaret Stacey, ed. London: Croom Helm. Pp. 9–21.
Goodman, Louis S. and Alfred Gilman 1965 The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. New York: Macmillan, London: Collier-Macmillan. Pp. 313–314, 328, 329.
Harman, J. B. et al., eds. 1976 British National Formulary 1976–78. London: British Medical Association. Pp. 63, 115.
Harrison, D. F. N. 1976 Nasal Drops, Sprays and Inhalations. Prescribers Journal 16: 69–74.
Hughes, Charles C. 1968 Ethnomedicine. In International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 10: 87–93. New York: Free Press/Macmillan.
Inglis, Brian 1964 Fringe Medicine. London: Faber and Faber.
Levitt, Ruth 1976 The Reorganised National Health Service. London: Croom Helm.
Lewis, Gilbert 1975 Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society. London: The Athlone Press. Pp. 146–151.
Lewis, I. M. 1971 Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism. London: Penguin Books.
Maclean, Kenneth and George Scott 1968 Medical Treatment, Vol. 1. London: J. & A. Churchill. P. 178.
Marinker, Marshall 1976 The myth of family medicine. World Medicine 11: 17–19.
Marsh, Geoffrey and Peter Kaim-Caudle 1976 Team Care in General Practice. London: Croom Helm.
Mellor, Constance 1975 Natural Remedies for Common Ailments. St. Albans: Mayflower Books.
Mitchell, William E. 1977 Changing Others: The Anthropological Study of Therapeutic Systems. Medical Anthropology Newsletter 8, No. 3: 15–19.
Morrell, D. C. 1971 Expressions of morbidity in general practice. British Medical Journal 2: 454.
Morrell, D. C. 1972 Symptom interpretation in general practice. Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners 22: 297–309.
Prince, Raymond 1964 Indigenous Yoruba psychiatry. In Magic, Faith, and Healing. Ari Kiev, ed. New York: The Free Press. Pp. 84–118.
Rose, Louis 1971 Faith Healing. London: Penguin Books.
Stacey, Margaret, ed. 1976 The Sociology of the National Health Service. London: Croom Helm.
Stimson, Gerry and Barbara Webb 1975 Going to See the Doctor — The Consultation Process in General Practice. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Trethowan, W. H. 1975 Pills for personal problems. British Medical Journal 3: 749–751.
Wilkes, E. 1974 The treatment of cough in general practice. Prescribers Journal 14: 98–103.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Helman, C.G. “Feed a cold, starve a fever” — folk models of infection in an english suburban community, and their relation to medical treatment. Cult Med Psych 2, 107–137 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054580
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054580