An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

eports that the English believed that the „happy man would not get the plague‟. ManyBlack people had similar thoughts about living in an alien country (Britain) where thepeople are unfriendly and they believe this contributes to their illness. Such a communityapproach highlights the theory-practice gap identified by Bunton and Mcdonald (1993),The Health of the Nation (Department of health 1992) and Our Healthier Nation(Department of Health1999). Their inability to find housing on arrival in the country was apermanent dent to their mental health and many have not recovered from the culture shockthat they experienced in the early days. Rose (1999) suggested they had not moved to thestate of independence discussed by Alder (1975) where the social psychological andcultural differences and similarities are valued as significant and can be enjoyed, thusallowing individuals to develop emotionally and move from fear of the unknown to a fullrange of emotions such as trust, humour and love. Consequently, they have stayed withintheir own community and that of the church where they have leaders or someone that theycan rely on to be there even if they do choose not to share their difficulties directly with theleader or leaders. Some rely on the church environment to renew their self-esteem so thatthey can function on a day to day basis in a society that is alien.2.2.4 Models and Theories of IllnessAlthough introduced originally only as an example to illustrate his theory of social order,and although, like functionalist theory as a whole, it has been criticised almost to death,Parsons‟ (1975, 1951) theory of „the sic‟ stands at the root of sociological theories ofillness over the past seventy years. Leaving aside all questions of what might actually bewrong with people, namely their diseases, he identified sickness as a period of legitimateabsence from formal work. He suggested that it was the need to regulate this in an efficientway that produced the great flowering of medicine in industrial society. The importantquestion was how we can differentiate legitimate sickness from mere malingering, and this30