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The Hidden Curriculum of Patient Education for Low Back Pain in General Practice
Author(s) -
Skelton Alan
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.00082
Subject(s) - curriculum , hegemony , patient education , control (management) , hidden curriculum , process (computing) , psychology , sociology , medicine , social psychology , pedagogy , medical education , nursing , political science , law , management , politics , computer science , economics , operating system
In this article I explore the implicit learning that occurs in and through doctor‐patient educational encounters in general practice. Drawing upon a recent study of low back pain, I argue that whilst general practitioners appear to dominate the process of patient education, this process cannot be viewed simply as a repressive social control mechanism. Rather patients voluntarily choose to exert bodily self‐controls in the light of patient education, due to their wider association with freedom, health and personal choice. Patient education for low back pain also offers opportunities for people to liberate their subjectivities so that social controls become redeployed or reappropriated for idiosyncratic or counter‐hegemonic purposes.