Sociological Research and Teaching in the Context of Medical Faculties - An Autobiographical Report

With the introduction of medical psychology and medical sociology as examination subjects in the medical curriculum, as enacted by the year 1970 in Germany, medical faculties established professorships and departments for these disciplines. This raised the concern of how the two separate scientific cultures of the social and behavioural sciences and of medicine, rooted in basic sciences, could reconcile their teaching and research activities in a constructive way. It turned out that the quality and the thematic affinity of new research aligning with core medical interests were important preconditions of successful integration of the new disciplines. This paper exemplifies a respective success in case of a scientific development in medical sociology. Based on a theoretical model, a longstanding, internationally collaborating research program analysing social determinants of stress-related disorders resulted in a series of innovative insights. Furthermore, the paper illustrates close links between biographical luck and structural opportunities and constraints, and it emphasizes the important role of committed inter-disciplinary scientific collaboration.