Health, Illness and Medicine
Chapter 13 Key Themes

• Cultural deprivation is used in the sociology of health and illness to claim that lifestyle choices determine ill health through an examination of factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and eating habits. It offers an explanation of higher incidences of ill health in working-class people by directly relating it to lifestyle factors. The idea of cultural deprivation is a powerful one, especially in the discourses of the new Right (see Chapter 14 'Crime'). It also has a long history in the sociological study of education (see Chapter 10).
  
• Panoptic is taken from Jeremy Bentham's 'panopticon' - a circular prison with the wardens' observation area at the centre, enabling the constant monitoring of all prisoners and refers to the ability to exercise surveillance over an entire population of bodies. It is particularly used in reference to the idea of a surveillance society. For an explanation of the theoretical basis for it, see Chapter 19 'Modernity, Postmodernity and Social Theory'. To explore new relationships of power in contemporary societies, go to Chapter 8 'Power, Politics and the State'.
  
• The idea of a medical gaze was employed by Foucault to denote the power of modern medicine to define and regulate the human body. However, the concept of a gaze has been employed in many other areas of social life, for example the 'tourist gaze' in the sociological study of leisure (see Chapter 11 'Work and Non-work'). To examine the Foucauldian origins of the idea, read Chapter 19 'Modernity, Postmodernity and Social Theory'.