Other sociologists use these possible conflicts among different people to exam-
ine the ways that illness operates within social life. For example, in modern society,
people are living longer, and they are also living with chronic illnesses that would have
killed people just a few years ago. How do people negotiate their social lives—work,
family life, friendships, sexuality—in the face of such chronic illnesses? What effect
does illness have on people’s identity?
Sociologists Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss (1985) identified three types of
“work” that individuals do to manage their illnesses within an overall context of iden-
tity management. Illness workconsists of the things we do to manage the actual ill-
ness—the timing of medicine, treating pain, cycles of doctors and hospital
appointments, and the like. Everyday workconsists of what we do in the rest of our
life—family life, friendship networks, routine household responsibilities, as well as
our actual jobs. Finally, individuals also perform biographical workto interpret for
themselves and others the impact the illness has had on their life. We revise and rewrite
our autobiographies constantly, especially in the light of new information such as a
chronic illness.
Some illnesses leave a person doubly affected. Not only do people who have
these illnesses suffer from the illness itself, but they also suffer from discrimination
because they have it. Those who suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug addic-
tion, physical or mental disabilities, or HIV also suffer from a stigmatized identity—
a perception that they are somehow responsible for their illness and that it is their
fault. People who have these types of illnesses struggle against social expectations
and prejudices. Ironically, people who suffer from these illnesses constitute the
majority of Americans.
The dominant trends in dealing with these stigmatized illnesses are deinstitu-
tionalization and medicalization. Deinstitutionalizationmeans the reintegration of
the sick back into society, instead of isolating them in separate places like mental
institutions. Isolation is understood as further contributing to the illness; integra-
tion, it is believed, will facilitate recovery. Thus, for example, the number of chil-
dren with learning disabilities who are “mainstreamed” in regular classes has
expanded rapidly, and special education classes are now reserved for those with
severe handicaps. Medicalizationrefers to the way that medical treatments have sup-
planted other options for both the healthy and the ill (Conrad and Schneider, 1992).
For example, childbirth, a perfectly natural, healthy process, has become medical-
ized; once managed by midwives or other lay
personnel, pregnancy and childbirth are now
managed by doctors, mainly in hospitals, and
often involve equipment and drugs (and
often maternity leave is characterized as a
“disability”). Similarly, death is now seen as
a medical moment, rather than the natural
destiny of all living things.
Mental Illness.We once thought people who
acted strange were deviant, weird, or perhaps
evil and “possessed” by demons. Now we’re
more likely to think they have a treatable
medical condition, a “mental illness.” A
mental illnessis “any of various psychiatric
disorders or diseases, usually characterized by
impairment of thought, mood, or behavior,”
according to the American Heritage Science
HEALTHY BODIES, SICK BODIES 539Natural experiences, such as
childbirth, have become
increasingly medicalized
procedures. Caesarian
section births have increased
46 percent in the United
States since 1996—far more
than in any other industrial-
ized country. This baby
appears to have been born
without a mother.n