The relation between experience and knowledge has been the subject of several debates in the sociology of knowledge, especially with regard to medical knowledge. The disease is experienced by the patient and the physician, who has the knowledge of disease, conducts the diagnoses and provides treatment. This poses two questions: Does the patient, who experiences the disease, have knowledge?

The demand for cure and for the care of a growing range of health conditions which elude any particular system of medicine has made pluralism in therapeutic options a way of life.