In these few years, “the sociology of health and medical problems” has been recognized as one of the important fields of sociology, among Japanese sociologists. The number of sociologists studing in this field are increasing, and their activities are developing in various directions. However, it seems that the methodology of this field is not yet well established. At the present stage, we must try to construct the methodology through theoretical discussion.
Many sociologists regard “the sociology of health and medical problems” as a kind of applied sociology, and attempt to apply the general sociological theories to this field. It seems meaningless and unfruitful to apply the general theories to this field, because the established sociological theories have been constructed without regard to the problems of health, disease and medicine.
For progress of “the sociology of health and medical problems”, we must start from the survey on the actual problems in the family, community, hospital and national society, and try to construct new theories capable of solving the problems. Through these effort, we can create new theories, not only in “the sociology of health and medical problems”, but also in other fields of sociology.
