A New Social Reformer

Abstract

Until 1981, we believed that in our societies any ill person could at any moment present himself to the world—to the family, to doctors and nurses, to work colleagues, to the church, to the school, to the government—and receive from each the same attention, the same treatment, and the same solicitude. We believed that a homogeneous space had been created around disease, and that this concerned only medical treatment. With the coming of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), this social space has been fragmented. The person carrying human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) does not any longer concern everybody. He is no longer the bearer of universal symbols. Is it not true that those who care for him are only those who share his existential choices, his age, his sentiments, and the same risk? It is in the fragmentation of this social space that the community movements organized themselves. Their functions and their services serve as analyzers of social deficiencies, backwardness, and needs.