From the Sick Role to Subject Positions: A New Approach to the Medical Encounter

Abstract

While Parsons’ theory of the sick role has been widely criticized, the alternatives that have been proposed are inadequate. Here subject positions theory is put forward as a viable approach to analysing medical encounters, which combines the advantages of sick role theory with those of its competitors. The approach is demonstrated through ethnographic material taken from a post-structural feminist praxis research project involving a midwife researcher and teenage mothers. This shows that actors move through a variety of subject positions in negotiating medical encounters. While subject positions theory provides a powerful new way of analysing these encounters, it is not yet clear how it can be used to challenge medical dominance.