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The respondent reports on health problems collected in 1999 by the French national “Handicaps–Incapacités–Dépendance” [“HID,” Disabilities–infirmities–dependence] survey provide insight into the multitude of ways laypersons have of presenting health disorders. Textual statistics show that respondent reports vary by social background, thereby illustrating Luc Boltanski’s notion of somatic cultures. However, it is possible to go beyond that observation to show that ways of presenting health problems cannot be dissociated from ways of understanding disease—what we have called “diagnostic theories.” Drawing on the examples of mental illness and Alzheimertype disorders, the article shows the relevance of taking into account factors other than social background, particularly the social and moral construction of pathologies and treatment configurations specific to medical-social sectors in the given society. Family configurations also play a role, as the issues involved in organizing daily life and care vary with those configurations.