The Social Nature of the Definition Problem in Health

Abstract

In this article it is argued that through the adoption of the appropriate theoretical approach and the derivation of suitable analytical categories, the definition problem in health can be seen as operational, nontrivial, and highly problematic to the determination of health care policy. Specifically, an attempt is made to isolate the social basis of the definition of health. Part one develops the theoretical approach to the problem. First, notions of health are traced paradigmatically, then a historical materialist approach is employed to develop the social basis of an operational, contemporary definition of health. This definition is then compared with other existing definitions, and part one concludes with a discussion of the possibilities of a normative definition. Part two applies the new definition by reinterpreting parts of the history of public health and medicine, and concludes with a discussion of how this definition is highly problematic to the major structural reforms currently under way in the American health care system.