How The Medical Profession Exerts Power And Control Over Society

Marxist theory and the Medical Profession’s Power and Control

Medical profession refers to the occupation that promotes, protects and restores the good health of living organisms by using knowledge and scientific advancements (Wallace, 2012, p.10). Exerting power and control refers to influencing the behavior of other parties. Power and control are normally exerted by the party with more strength, experience, skills, knowledge, money or even job position. In such cases, failure to adhere to the instructions of the person with more powers will lead to adverse consequences that can emotionally or even physically hurt the other person. Over the years, some professions are deemed to exert power and control over the general public and medical profession is not left behind in this notion. This essay is written to explain the ways in which medical profession exerts power and control over the wide society.

The Marxist theory explains the social classes of the people in a society and the classes are upper, middle and then the lower one. The theory states that the lower class has to struggle due to oppression by the upper class (Fuchs, and Mosco, 2012, p.134). The upper class of the society oppresses the lower class because they have the capital and they also possess the units of production. On the other hand, lower class of the society struggle because they are laborers and work for the upper class and thus they have no advantage over the upper class.

Marxist theory helps to understand how medicine exerts power and control over the wide society and also act as the agent of social control in societies. Medical profession helps the society to be free of disorders and diseases that hinder smooth existence among people. By possessing such ability, the profession has an upper advantage over the rest of the society. The knowledge and skills which are the sources of expert power enable the profession to exert power and control over the society by eliminating the outbreak of diseases and other unfit social behaviors. The medical profession also influences the behavior of the society as counselors and psychiatrists help to eliminate behaviors that do not promote social coexistence and thus acting as an agent of social control.

Marxists theory also help to illustrate how medical professionals act as the agent of social control because the profession has control over genetics. Without the help of the medical profession, health and medical disorders that are passed on from one generation to another could be rampant. The knowledge of genetics possessed by the medical fraternity has helped to control the spread of such disorders as the medical profession provide genetics counseling that helps in the reproduction of babies with fit genes and abilities. Such skills and knowledge has helped the society to eliminate unwanted disorders such as mental disorders, and this enables the medical profession to exert control over the society.

Genetic Counseling and its Impact on Medical Profession’s Power and Control

Another theory that can help to illustrate how medical profession exerts power and control over the wide society is feminism theory. This theory states that there is gender inequality in societies. In such societies, one gender is perceived to be superior over the other gender due to various factors such as the ability to perform some tasks which the other gender cannot perform or is prohibited from performing them (Walby, et al.2012, p.232). The theory states that due to inequality of the gender, one gender usually the superior one oppresses the perceived less superior gender. The theory alleges that the superior gender has power and control over the other gender. 

The feminism gender helps in understanding how the medical profession exerts power and control over the society. The medical profession can cure, eliminate, restore and promote the healthy life of the wide society. Such abilities make the profession to be viewed as more superior than the rest of the society. The knowledge and the skills possessed by the medical profession makes it possible to control the society as their advice is well followed by the members of the general public who seek the services of the medical profession.

The doctor-patient relationship also helps to explain the ways in which medical profession exerts power and control over the general society. The relationship shows how the doctors influence the patients in many ways. The relationship is forged through many aspects which include; confidentiality. The patient trusts the doctor or the physician with confidential information concerning his/her health (Chwia?kowska, 2013, p.44). The sharing of the information makes the patient trust the doctor, and this enables the doctor to exert control over the patient and use his/her skills and knowledge to treat the patient. The patient has no other option but to entrust the doctor, and this makes the doctor more superior and can exert the needed control over the patient.

Shared decision making is the other aspect of the doctor-patient relationship (Chwia?kowska, 2013, p.44). The patient consults the doctor, and the doctor helps the patients to make a sound decision concerning his/her health. The patient is unable to make a sound decision without the opinion of the doctor because the doctor has expert power acquired from the ability to make sound health decisions. This makes the doctor have the ability to control the wide public.

The other aspect is informed consent. Even though before treatment the doctor has to seek the consent of the patient, there are some instances where the doctor has to act in the best interest of the patient even if the patient is against the decision (Jing, et al.2013, p.421). The doctor acts in the best interest of the patient and therefore, exerting expert power to control the life of the patient.

Feminism Theory and the Medical Profession’s Power and Control

Dependency is the last aspect of the doctor-patient relationship. The fate of the life of the patient lies in the hands of the doctor. In this scenario, the doctor has a superiority over the life of the patient. The patient cannot help him/herself, and he/she depends on the skills and knowledge of the doctor to survive. This enables the medical profession to exert power and control over the wide public.

There are several factors that have influenced the medical profession to exert power and control over the general public. The factors include technological advances. Technology has advanced tremendously, and this has helped the medical fraternity to increase the knowledge and skills (Levesque, et al.2013, p.18). The technology has also helped in the development of equipment that has helped the medical fraternity to improve their services. These improvements due to technology have enabled the medical profession to control the wide society.

Research and development have played a pivotal role in ensuring that the medical profession has more knowledge in different aspects of human health. This has helped in the development of vaccines and medicines that have helped to save the lives of many people (Levesque, et al.2013, p.18). Research has also led to the performance of surgeries which has resulted in saving lives of many members of the public. The research and development have therefore contributed to ensuring that the medical profession exerts power and control over the general public.

In conclusion, medical profession possesses skills and knowledge which is used to save the lives of the wide society. Possession of special skills and knowledge results in possession of the expert power which has proven to be very effective in controlling people even in organizations. Therefore, the ability to save the lives of the wide society enables medical profession to control the members of the general public who cannot possess such skills. As a result, this leads to improved quality of healthcare services due to expert power. 

References

Chwia?kowska, A., 2013. The factors influencing the physician-Patient Relationship–the case study of Poland. Journal of Health Sciences, 3(11), pp.037-050.

Fuchs, C. and Mosco, V., 2012. Introduction: Marx is back–the importance of Marxist theory and research for critical communication studies today. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 10(2), pp.127-140.

Jing, W., Otten, H., Sullivan, L., Lovell-Simons, L., Granek-Catarivas, M. and Fritzsche, K., 2013. Improving the doctor-patient relationship in China: the role of balint groups. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 46(4), pp.417-427.

Levesque, J.F., Harris, M.F. and Russell, G., 2013. Patient-centred access to health care: conceptualising access at the interface of health systems and populations. International journal for equity in health, 12(1), p.18.

Walby, S., Armstrong, J. and Strid, S., 2012. Intersectionality: Multiple inequalities in social theory. Sociology, 46(2), pp.224-240.

Wallace, J.E., 2012. Mental health and stigma in the medical profession. Health:, 16(1), pp.3-18.