This study is an exploratory anthropological investigation of the social and cultural dimensions of genital herpes. The purpose of the research is to understand how peoples' psychosocial reactions to herpes are tied up with cultural meanings and social interactions. This investigation will be accomplished through semi-structured open-ended interviews with three population groups: 1) physicians and nurses (those treating herpes patients and those not treating herpes patients); 2) persons who have genital herpes (patients who seek medical treatment for herpes; people who attend herpes self-help groups; people who do not seek medical or psychological treatment for herpes); 3) persons who do not have genital herpes (people who have herpes labialis, and people who do not have herpes labialis). Through intensive interviews, these informants will illuminate how folk knowledge and medical knowledge influence one another with regard to herpes, and how both are influenced by larger social forces and cultural constraints. There are two aims to this research. One is to ascertain the social and cultural influences on the individual psychological reactions (e.g., worthlessness, depression, isolation) that are associated with herpes. The assumption behind this aim is that peoples' reactions to genital herpes are based on several factors: 1) how they view themselves as individuals within the system of social relations of which they are a part; 2) how influenced they are by popular opinion about herpes that exists in contemporary American culture: 3) what kind of knowledge (folk or medical) they have about herpes; 4) how the different explanatory models that people have about herpes are integrated into contemporary cultural values and social relationships.
The second aim of the research is to investigate the sociocultural aspects of transmission. Because of the high incidence rate of herpes, transmission of the virus is a social and cultural phenomenon as well as a biological circumstance. Consequently, the research will investigate transmission by studying the social and cultural differences in men's and women's health-care seeking behavior, their conceptions of themselves, and their knowledge of the contagious character of the herpes virus. Information gleaned from this study can be used to help develop strategies to vent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, to generate programs to protect the mental health of people who have herpes, and to educate others not to fear herpes and not to stigmatize people who are infected with it.
| Pliskin, K L (1997) Verbal intercourse and sexual communication: impediments to STD prevention. Med Anthropol Q 11:89-109 |
| Pliskin, K L (1995) Vagina dentata revisited: gender and asymptomatic shedding of genital herpes. Cult Med Psychiatry 19:479-501 |
