offesion (including pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment suppliers) have a vested interest in illness so they create illnesses which have to be treated by doctors and drugs etc. this means conditions that used to be seen as natural, such as dying or unhappiness have now undergone a social iatrogenesis (doctor caused illness) whereby people cannot handle their own health anymore. postmodernists dislike this use of medical discourse because one theory has more prestige that it should be considered the truth. Despite the fact that postmodernism is criticised as being one itself, it dislikes metanarritives. these are single theories such as marxism or science that claim to explain every thing. they do not beleive that science should have as much dominance over what people believe about their health as there are other options. Postmodernists beleive that people should use their theory of Pastiche (pick and mix) and that they should choose some parts from the biomedical view of health that work for them, and some from complementary medicine. This theory of a pastiche of healthcare is aided by the postmodernist theory of globalisation. This is a theory which states that because of the media the world has got smaller. now we in the western world can simply look on the internet to find out different types of healthcare from around the world, for example chinese medicine. this gives us more options and mean we dont have to stick with what we are given, the biomedical model.-----------------------------------------The biomedical model not only receives a lot of criticism from postmodernism but McEeown (1979) claims that in modern society, through industrialisation, the aim of medicine is wrong, and that the emphasis on technology is leading to an increase in Iatrogenic illness. Examples of this are adverse reactions to drugs or complications after surgery. Illich's study previously mentioned backs up this idea. Other critics from differ...
