[Brazil: the physician-patient relation and its social determinants]

The paper presents an analysis of the two principal sociological paradigms in the study of physician-patient relationship. The first paradigm has a very old tradition in medical sociology--the systemic-functional--and the second--the structural paradigm--is of a more recent development. The review starts with Henderson's work from 1935; after that it analyzes Parson's contribution from 1951 and Freidson's ideas from 1961. In the second part, the authors point out Arouca's, Boltanski's, Waitzkin's and Silva's contributions. The article concludes with an analysis of the limitations of the first paradigm, and the possibilities of the structural paradigm.