Nancy Waxler’s

Nancy Waxler’s

Paper instructions

After you have read Nancy Waxler’s “Learning to Be a LeperPreview the document” please answer the following questions:

1. What does the author mean by the “social construction of illness”?

2. What is “stigma”? Is the social stigma of leprosy (in the West) different from the social stigma of AIDS? How?

3. If you were a physician, and you were able to stop a case of Handen’s Disease so that there were no deformities or long-term effects, what do you think could be done about the experience of this illness?

4. How is it that agencies designed to help people with illnesses like HD can actually contribute to stigmatization?

5. The author says that the bacillus that causes HD is only a “minor player in the drama of leprosy.” How might agencies designed to help those with HD be created which could alleviate the social stigmatization of the disease?

Solution Preview

Nancy Waxler

Question 1

            The social construction of illness refers to a situation where illnesses individuals of society understand to have particular explanations and social meanings. Therefore, the recognition of society turns the symptoms of the illnesses into social facts,

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