Table of Contents
1 Some sociological and philosophical preliminaries
The Parsonian ideal
Freidson
The clinical mentality
The physician as a moral entrepreneur
Scheff, diagnosis and errors
Rational diagnosis and treatment
Rational treatment planning
Contagion of belief and behaviour
Medicine as a moral enterprise: Kennedy
2 Disease, illness and somatization
The development of the concept of somatization
The concepts of disease and illness
The background to the concept of somatization
The ‘disappearances’ of hysteria
Models of explanation for serious illness
without a disease base
Psychosomatic illness and somatization
The change to the somatoform disorders
Defining somatization
The moral aspects of dealing with somatization
Did hysteria really disappear?
3 Perceptions of writers’ cramp and its
epidemics
1830s: The English Civil Service and the steel
nib
1872: Poore in Great Britain
1879: Beard in the United States
1886: Lewis in the United States
1888: Gowers and the shift to occupational
neurosis
1907–11: Telegraphists’ cramp
1926: Industrial Fatigue Research Board
1892–1920: Osler’s Principles and Practice
of Medicine
1922–73: Price’s Textbook of the Practice
of Medicine
1941: Kinnear Wilson in the United States
1947: Pai in Great Britain
Psychologists and psychiatrists
1982: Sheehy and Marsden
From 1955: Hunter’s The Diseases of Occupations
1964–75: Occupational cervico-brachial disorder
4 RSI and industrial relations
Occupational health and safety
The development of the construction of RSI
The conflation of industrial trauma and occupation
neurosis
1961–79: Tenosynovitis
1979: Tenosynovitis, Walker and the Workers’
Health Centre
1981: The Rank Electric dispute
1981: The Occupational Health and Safety Unit
1981: Involvement of the clerical unions
1981: Cumpston and Taylor
1982: The National Health and Medical Research
Council (NHMRC)
1982: ACTU Draft Policy: Guidelines for
the Prevention of Repetitive Strain Inj75
The Australian epidemic of RSI
1982: Lashford v Plessey
1982: Promotion of damages for tenosynovitis
1983: The federal Labor government
1983: Interim National Occupational Health
and Safety Commission: WorkSafe Auslia82
5 RSI and institutional support: medicine
and government
1983: Dr William Stone
1984: Professor David Ferguson
1984: Browne, Nolan and Faithfull
1984: The campaign
1985: Task Force on RSI in the Australian
Public Service
1985: WorkSafe: National Occupational Health
and Safety Commission
After the Australian experience
The spread of RSI
6 The extent of the Australian epidemic
The creation of statistical data
Changes in legislation
The rise of RSI in New South Wales and other
states
Commonwealth sector
Telecom Australia
The decline of the epidemic
Conclusion from the epidemic spread
7 Somatization in the form of writers’ cramp
How do physicians recognise somatization?
Differentiating cramp from disease
Differentiating cramp from diseases of nerves
Differentiating cramp from tenosynovitis
Differentiating cramp from disease of muscles
Differentiating cramp from myofascial dysfunctions
Differentiating cramp from overuse and misuse
Occupational myalgias
Disturbances of sensation
Disturbances of function leading to disability
in somatization
Disabilities
Response of cramp subjects to treatment
8 Symptoms, remedies and predicaments
Validity issues
The remuneration of doctors
Who diagnosed and treated RSI patients?
Diagnostic procedures
Claimant data
Table 9.2 Health problems concurrent with
RSI
Presentation of cases
The claimants’ predicaments
9 Perceptions and responses
The views of medical professionals
Occupational health clinics
Rheumatologists
Psychiatrists
General practitioners and primary care
Occupational health specialists
Rehabilitation specialists
Surgeons
Physiotherapists
Theoretical medicine
Medical journals
Psychologists
Medical formulations
Unions and institutions
Sociologists
Feminists
The perceptions of the claimants
The social history of afflicted claimants
The media
The community
10 Conclusion: expert evidence, medicine and the law
11 RSI: ‘A blessing in disguise’
Twenty cases
Bibliography
Legal cases
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