Can the social sciences make important contributions to clinical medicine? After one readsSociomedical Perspectives on Patient Care, the answer must be a resounding yes. A rich mosaic of 14 chapters written by more than 20 multidisciplinary scholars and social scientists, this book covers a broad range of topics on the doctor-patient relationship. The results are so provocative and stimulating that we enthusiastically recommend the book to everyone interested in medicine. A brief discussion of three chapters should give a flavor of its scope and power. Physicians are all too familiar with modern technology and how rapid scientific discoveries are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. For example, the neuroscience revolution is forcing us to alter the very way that we view ourselves in the universe. Lest we assume that rapid social and scientific changes are unique to our generation and that only our contemporaries resist the consequences of new scientific
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Richard E. Peschel (1994) studied this question.