Marxist Approach to Health

A definition, by way of contrast, of the key features of Marxism and functionalism will precede an application of each theory in turn to health.

Functionalism developed out of the positivist observation that 'all positive speculations owe their first origin to the occupations of practical life' (Comte, 1865, pg 11) and the boundaries of scientific knowledge can not go further than empirically observable truths and views societies as holistic systems where 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts' (Taylor et el, 1997, pg 662). Functionalist analysis draws on three assumptions essentially seeking to transform society into a theoretical system of reality. The first assumption is that there are zero independent parts operating within the system, secondly that the parts identified need to be understood in terms of their contribution to the functioning of the system and, finally, that the constituent parts have a positive function, or role to play, in the systems overall functioning and effectiveness (ibid, pg 668).

In contrast, Marxism was formulated with the philosophical perspective of materialism dominating; that everything is reducible, and a reflection of independent reality (Engels, 1941, pp. 20-32), in the primacy of the independent world. Firstly it produced a dialectical materialism that has been said to explain the world in terms of 'the sum total of available human knowledge' (Guest, 1939, pg 23) which considers social theory, the scientific revolution and the enlightenment and does not confine itself within the realms of empirical observation therefore making Marxism non-positivist. Secondly a historical materialism that broke away from the philosophical, or dialectical, materialism to become the scientific ...

... middle of paper ...

... and specifically doctors as agents of the state, promotes individual responsibility of illness (Navarro, 1979) that is evocative of the predominant ideology of the state and political system that is geared to a capitalist economy and individualistic world view. Secondly health as a produced commodity to counteract the unwanted social results of a capitalist society on it's workforce therefore disguising an inherently social problem as a medical one that a Marxist may describe as a social wage (Gough...) and the state's reliance on the healthcare system allied with it's need for the accumulation of capital and individual human beings, many of whom commodities owned and economically enslaved by the owners of the means of production, together with all private companies associated with the healthcare system and all departments of state governance which support it.