E. Toon
"Cancer as the General Population Knows It": Knowledge, Fear, and Lay Education in 1950s Britain
Toon, E.
Authors
Abstract
This article examines British medical debates about cancer education in the 1950s, debates that reveal how those responsible for cancer control thought about the public and their relationship to it, and what they thought the new political economy of medicine introduced by the National Health Service would mean for that relationship. Opponents of education campaigns argued that such programs would add to the economic and organizational pressures on the NHS, by setting in motion an ill-informed, uncontrollable demand that would overwhelm the service. But an influential educational "experiment" devised by the Manchester Committee on Cancer challenged these doubts, arguing that the public's fear was based in their experience with family and friends dying of the disease. The challenge for cancer control, then, was to improve that experience and thus change experiential knowledge.
Citation
Toon, E. (2007). "Cancer as the General Population Knows It": Knowledge, Fear, and Lay Education in 1950s Britain. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 81(1), 116-138
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Apr 1, 2007 |
Deposit Date | Jan 9, 2008 |
Journal | Bulletin of the History of Medicine |
Print ISSN | 0007-5140 |
Electronic ISSN | 1086-3176 |
Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 81 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 116-138 |
Keywords | Health education, Cancer, National Health Service, Great Britain, Manchester Committee on Cancer, Ralston Paterson, Cancerphobia, Patient experience, Palliative care. |
Publisher URL | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/bulletin_of_the_history_of_medicine/toc/bhm81.1.html |
You might also like
Teaching children about health
(2004)
Book Chapter
'Live clean, think clean, and don't go to burlesque shows': Charles Atlas as health advisor
(2002)
Journal Article