The Social Relations of Therapy Management (Continuous)

Abstract

This article examines potential illness signified by diagnostic tests and agency, revisiting the case study of Ali and his search for diagnosis, as well as the mobilization of a therapy management group for both himself and his wife Fatima. The article focuses on how the character of therapy management is embedded in social relationships. Furthermore, it draws attention to the kind of choices made on behalf of the afflicted in the context of poverty, where choice is limited and members of a therapy management group must cope with their sense of powerlessness. Based on this, the author points out the importance of studying the particular as a means of understanding how life is negotiated and circumstance as a means of seeing how priorities are (re-)established and social relationship revisited.