Seda Usubutun

Social Construction of Pseudo Disease in Turkey: Clinicians' Practice of Giving Diagnosis, Patients' Voices from Subject Positions Seda Usubutun

Pseudo disease is an illness state of patient without its proven pathological disease status by the physician. This book aims to investigate the social construction of both the diagnosis and the patient of pseudo disease in Turkey. Diagnostic work of physicians is examined by using the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a diagnostic category with low recognition (45%) by Turkish medical professionals. The book also explores the interpretative repertoires of pseudo disease patients, voiced through different subject positions that are made available for them by professional discourses. The analysis provides valuable insight into two broad illness narratives of pseudo disease: the sensitivity-vulnerability narratives from sensitive subject positions for patients who accept psychological explanations and, the self-exploratory quest narratives from self responsible subject positions for patients who reject psychological explanations. The book is useful for social psychological researchers, healthcare practitioners and health policy makers, as well as, it is an argumentative resource for admirers of social constructionist epistemology in social sciences