From Social Structure to Social Behaviour in Britain after the Second World War

Porter, Dorothy

doi:10.1080/713999468

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…The inter-war social medicine movement had begun as an international project that located the cause and remedy for illness in social and economic structures. 83 Its proponents strived to reorient the thought and practice of clinical medicine along these lines, but efforts to remake medical education largely failed. 84 As a result, post-war social medicine became an academic pursuit associated with epidemiological research and health service assessment.…”

Section: Diabetes and Reconstruction Of The Health Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…British experts studying a range of conditions began to shift frequently used explanatory frameworks for patterns of morbidity away from social structures of inequality and towards behaviours and 'accumulated vices' . 116 These perspectives formed the basis for new policy networks and large-scale public health campaigns targeting 'risky' lifestyle choices, with health education programmes designed to cultivate self-managing subjects through the persuasive provision of advice and coded cultural messages. 117 To fine-tune their practices, moreover, state bodies assumed responsibility for undertaking research-based surveillance on public attitudes and behaviours.…”

Section: Diabetes and Reconstruction Of The Health Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronicity and the care team in Britain’s New Jerusalem

Moore¹

2019

Managing Diabetes, Managing Medicine

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, J. J. A. Reid-a well-known public health practitioner-addressed a familiar theme. 'In this country', Reid began, 'the problems with which all branches of our profession are faced are very different from those of the past, when poverty, ignorance and infectious diseases were the main enemies of health. ' 'Nowadays', Reid continued, 'it is towards cardiovascular disease, cancer, bronchitis, accidents, mental disorder, and such chronic conditions as diabetes mellitus and arthritis that we must look for the principal sources of mortality and morbidity. ' For Reid, medical advances, increased education, and economic growth might have conquered the diseases of the past, and they were probably the sources of progress in the future. In the present, however, this combination had also provided the conditions for 'smoking … overeating, and … [lack of] exercise' that caused 'maladies of plenty'. 1 For Reid, and other Medical Officers of Health (MOHs), doctors, and lay persons involved in public health activity, this changed profile of morbidity and mortality required new approaches. On the one hand, these practitioners spoke of a 'New Public Health' , based on persuasive health education campaigns that would help individuals to manage the imbalanced lifestyles supposedly underpinning novel burdens of disease. 2 On the other hand, they recognised that such campaigns could form only one component of efforts to confront chronic disease. For conditions like diabetes, even contributory factors to onset were unknown, and complete disease prevention was not considered possible. Moreover, patients managing such illnesses were believed to encounter psychological challenges, discrimination, and often painful long-term complications. For these problems, it was argued, early diagnosis and treatment by a multidisciplinary team of medical, nursing, and technical staff offered the best solutions.

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Section: Diabetes and Reconstruction Of The Health Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Diabetes and Reconstruction Of The Health Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronicity and the care team in Britain’s New Jerusalem

Moore¹

2019

Managing Diabetes, Managing Medicine

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“…Of course, Halliday’s emphasis on the social determinants of illness was not new. On the contrary, it echoed the political and utopian rhetoric of British social medicine, which was heavily influenced during the immediate post-war years by John Ryle’s notion of ‘social pathology’ and which increasingly focused on the role of stress as an important behavioural factor in the aetiology of chronic disease (D. Porter, 1992, 2002). In North America, a programme of progressive socio-economic reform and preventative health care, similar to that adopted by Ryle and his colleagues and also concerned with the impact of environmental stress on mental health, was promoted by proponents of social psychiatry and endorsed by President J. F. Kennedy (Rosen, 1959; Smith, 2008).…”

Section: Stress and The Sick Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

The pursuit of happiness

Jackson

2012

History of the Human Sciences

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In 1956, Hans Selye tentatively suggested that the scientific study of stress could ‘help us to formulate a precise program of conduct’ and ‘teach us the wisdom to live a rich and meaningful life’. Nearly two decades later, Selye expanded this limited vision of social order into a full-blown philosophy of life. In Stress without Distress, first published in 1974, he proposed an ethical code of conduct designed to mitigate personal and social problems. Basing his arguments on contemporary understandings of the biological processes involved in stress reactions, Selye referred to this code as ‘altruistic egotism’. This article explores the origins and evolution of Selye’s ‘natural philosophy of life’, analysing the links between his theories and adjacent intellectual developments in biology, psychosomatic and psychosocial medicine, cybernetics and socio-biology, and situating his work in the broader cultural framework of modern western societies.

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“…10 In the 1950s, however, she suggests that interest in social structures was replaced by a focus on social behaviour. 11 This shift was driven in part by the epidemiological transition, and growing recognition of the impact of behaviour on health, but was also related to a renewed interest in the public and its conduct. Attempting to know the people, their attitudes and actions, was of course, nothing new, but the mid-twentieth century saw a rapid growth in social science, and the development of its methodologies, such as the survey.…”

Section: Public Health and The Public In Post-war Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exhibiting Good Health: Public Health Exhibitions in London, 1948–71

Mold

2017

Med. Hist.

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This article examines the changing nature of public health services and their relationship with the public in post-war Britain by an analysis of the exhibitions mounted by Medical Officers of Health (MOsH) in London. Focusing on the period 1948-71, the article explores a time when public health practice, and the problems it faced, were in flux. A decline in infectious disease and an increase in chronic conditions linked to lifestyle required a new role for public health services. Exhibitions were one of several methods that MOsH used to inform the public about dangers to their health, but also to persuade them to change their behaviour. The exhibition, though, offers a unique insight into the relationship between public health authorities and the public, as exhibitions brought MOsH into direct contact with people. It is suggested that in the MOsH exhibitions we can find signs of a new relationship between public health practitioners and the public. Whilst elements of the pre-war, often moralistic ideology of public health services could still be detected, there is also evidence of a more nuanced, responsive dynamic between practitioners and the people. By the end of the 1960s, 'the public' was increasingly being thought of as a collection of 'publics', including individuals, target groups and vocal respondents.

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From Social Structure to Social Behaviour in Britain after the Second World War

Cited by 26 publications

References 16 publications

Chronicity and the care team in Britain’s New Jerusalem

Chronicity and the care team in Britain’s New Jerusalem

The pursuit of happiness

Exhibiting Good Health: Public Health Exhibitions in London, 1948–71

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