Marxism Vs Functionalism

This essay will be mainly focused on the similarities and the differences in two sociological perspectives which are the Marxist and the Functionalist approach when it comes to health and illness, also will define the definition of them.
To support this essay, according to WHO (1946) health is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being and not just the absence of disease or illness, however on the other hand health is a term that is normally difficult to be defined as everyone has their own interpretation of what health means. While illness is the opposite definition of health and according to Kleinman (1978) illness refers to the sociocultural context within which disease is experienced.
The Functionalist approach in health
The expectations are known as the “sick role” which demonstrated how an individual should resemble when they are ill and how they ought to think. The sick role is separated into two groups; the rights and the obligations. The rights were defined as, an individual is free from any social roles for example school or work when ill and Alzheimer's disease is an example of the sick role illness that is considered to influence the greater part of the elderly population and individuals with this infection are not to blame for this disease and are given time away from any social duties to seek for medical assistance Fulcher, J, and John S. (2011). Parson’s also stated an ill individual should not be perceived as having caused their own health problems if the individual maintains a good healthy lifestyle. Whereas Obligations are the opposite of rights, the reason being individual ought to seek medical help, for example, heading to see a specialist and
The theory believed that the higher class benefited from the operation of the society, while the average workers get lesser than they deserved. This is the main reason to why the division occurred in the society and became a conflict. Lyon, David, Karl Marx (1981). Marxists argue that due to the circumstance the working class does not challenge capitalism is due that the fact that the higher class, who regulator the economy likewise regulator the family, education and media etc. However, this is argued by Louis Althusser (1971) that the cultural organisation’s aim is to maintain and legitimise class inequality. The Marxist also believed that health care specialist is realised as representative to maintained individuals for them to rapidly return to work so that profit was made for the higher social class Navarro (1979). Also, the Marxist defines ill health on an individual’s social class; for example, people in the lower social class are more at risk of an increase of illness and a lower