Contents: Preface, Anne Murcott; Part 1 Doctors, Patients and Encounters: Aren't children wonderful?: the allocation of identity in developmental assessment; The management of therapeutic encounters with young children; Minor courtesies and macro structures; 2 types of ceremonial order. Part 2 Professional Place, Occupational Boundary: Sociological imperialism and the profession of medicine - a critical examination of the thesis of medical imperialism; The rivals: an essay on the sociological trades; The academic encirclement of medicine?; Doctors and nurses. Part 3 Models, Methods and Methodologies: A methodological appendix to The Ceremonial Order of the Clinic; Natural science and medicine: social science and medicine: some methodological controversies; Epidemic psychology: a model; One branch of moral science: an early modern approach to public policy; Bibliography; References; Index.