A thread
On an American sociologists' visit to Australian medical schools in the 1970s to see how they taught "behavioural sciences".

David Klein (Michigan State) visited UNSW and USyd in 1972 & 74. He wrote an article for @theMJA about the difficulties of incorporating behavioural-science content into the medical curriculum https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1976.tb140822.x

His first observation was that there was a 'conspicuous...lack of a corps of well trained, empirically oriented sociologists and anthropologists willing and able' to train physicians.

This lack was not merely an absence, but Klein thought Australian sociology (ping @AustSoc) was too British in its attraction to "philosophy, ideology and social amelioration", which medical students would dismiss as "fuzzy" SJW (not his term) opinion.

Australian sociology, according to Klein, had not produced the demographic data adequate for use in teaching' & the literature on Australian families was speculative - 'certainly not ideal material for use with students who respect the scientific analysis of well collected data'

Klein moves from sociology to throw some shade on Australian anthropologists. Who, according to Klein, 'emphasize ethnography - studies of the Aboriginal or the Papuan indigene rather than studies of, say, the effects of industrialization of Australian family structure'.

Why is this a problem? Klein thought the ethnographic anthropologist teaching medical students would reinforce 'existing tendency to perceive patients in terms of ethnic characteristics (Maltese etc)' It'd also reinforce the dichotomy Klein observed bw "migrants" & "Australians"

This dichotomy implies that 'all Australians are homogenous & that recent migrants differ from "Australians" only in their degree of acculturation.' Basically, Klein thinks graduates will pay more attention to ethnicity than class, SES, edu, employment, health behaviours etc

Klein believed these problems with sociology & anthropology were compounded by 2 characteristics of Australian med students that sensitized them to socioeconomic differences

1) More so than the US, Australian medical students 'come from families of high SES and have had little interaction with people of lower status.'
2) 'most Australian medical students live at home'.

This, argued Klein, resulted in a 'social naivete' & caused stress 'when they first encountered the socially deprived patient'.

Klein believed a thorough curriculum in the behavioural sciences would give a 'broad orientation (conceptual as well as empirical) to the total socio-economic spectrum of the patient population'. But Australian curricula in the 1970s was piecemeal. Or worse, run by psychologists

To correct deficits in the current curricula, as Klein saw them, he suggested courses on:
1. the socialization process helping students understand their own socialization process as well as patients.
2. Aust economic development & changing relationship of family, society & State

3. Industrialisation & the shift in interpersonal relationships from one-to-one interactions to the less personal & bureaucratic interaction.
4. Social stratification/class analysis re attitudes to health & illness

Basically, this would help students 'understand the behavioural correlates of social class' and how 'human sexuality, mental illness, child abuse [etc]..."make sense" as manifestations of a general life style related to a specific socioeconomic level.'

Klein acknowledged that his paper may seem overly critical of Australian medical schools, but basically he thinks its commendable how well they've done 'given the serious shortage of thoroughly trained personnel & adequate Australian data'.

The 'fundamental problem' according to Klein is staffing and that 'the few well-trained, empirically oriented behavioural scientists that Australia currently is producing are not gravitating to medical schools'. Medical schools need to attract a 'cadre of behavioural scientists'

Australian medical curricula in the 1970s were more interested in behavioural scientists (esp. sociologists & anthropologists) teaching medical students than ethicists. This no longer seems to be the case. Soc & Anthro, you could've had it all!