The author presents a method through which findings from anthropological
and cross-cultural research can be applied to problems affecting patient
care. The clinical social science approach emphasizes the distinction
between disease and illness and cultural influences on the ways "clinical
reality" is conflictingly construed in the ethnomedical models of patients
and the biomedical models of practitioners. The relevance of such research
extends beyond special clinical concerns arising from ethnic differences to
ubiquitous problems that result from cultural influences on all aspects of
health care. Consultation-liaison psychiatry is a particularly appropriate
vehicle for introducing clinical social science into medical and
psychiatric teaching and practice.
Abstract Teaser