The Australian RSI debate: stereotyping and medicine

The vehement scientific debate which took place in Australia in the 1980s over the epidemic of the chronic cervicobrachial pain syndrome known as repetition strain injury (RSI) was remarkable for the accompanying social commentary offered by many of the medical participants. This commentary was to have a profound effect on relationships between individual doctors and their patients with RSI. It reflected and reinforced the prevailing stereotypes within Australian society, not only of working women, but also of recipients of workers' compensation payments. On the other hand, some of the medical responses to the epidemic were severely criticized by social scientists who analysed the epidemic. In the process of such criticism, a number of stereotypes of doctors were also reinforced.