Tourette syndrome: a sociological reading

Abstract

Tourette Syndrome, as a condition of ambiguous behavioural symptomatology and unknown aetiology, can be considered as a sociologically paradigmatic case for conditions potentially leading to a deviant status. Critical examination of existing case reports indicates that conceptions of Tourette Syndrome held by medical agents are complex and variable in their form and content, and that the relationship between these conceptions and intervention strategies is not categorically determined in practice. On the basis of these observations, an analytical model is proposed, towards meeting the identified need for an adequate conceptualisation of the constitution of deviant labels. This model allows the observed variability within a given diagnostic label, and a range of outcomes, to be systematically accommodated within the societal reaction perspective on deviance. The model explicitly allows that this perspective need not imply any necessary determinism of labelling, as is erroneously held by certain critics of the perspective. Misdiagnosis is identified as a factor which may potentially result in secondary deviation via application of inappropriate interventions. The practical implications of such reactions are explored, and it is suggested that training in assertiveness could be effective in promoting subject-initiated re-labelling in this context. Given the exploratory nature of the analysis, further research is suggested to ascertain systematically what extra-medical factors differentiate deviant and non-deviant outcomes in this condition. Testing of the general utility of the proposed conceptual model is also indicated.