"The study of social aspects of illness has been held back by the lack of an adequate sociology of illness and reliance on a biology of illness borrowed uncritically from medical investigators. This book's review of the major traditions of sociological work on illness and its behavioural consequences pioneered the attempt to forge an alternative way of understanding the phenomenon of illness. It was strongly influenced by contemporary developments in American sociology and anthropology that have still not been widely taken up in the UK, although they represent important contributions to the search for a general analytic approach to the study of illness as a social matter. The book comes with a new introduction reflecting on its arguments, their continuing relevance and the author's further thoughts."--BOOK JACKET.