Aim: This article examines the way in which private general practitioners take into account the social position of their patients in their preventive work. Methods: After a review of the main normative constructs supposed to equip the general practitioners to grasp the social dimension of their practice, the article used two surveys on the provision of preventive care, one epidemiological (PrevQuanti) and the other sociological (PrevQuali). Results: Deontology, training and recommendations make it difficult to shape the social dimensions of health that pratitioners have to deal with. The PrevQuanti survey, however, revealed that the provision of preventive care is subject to almost systematic but variable social gradients. The analysis, based on the PrevQuali interview study, makes the ways in which pratitioners mobilise the social position of their patients and whether or not they adapt to it. Conclusion: The positionings of general practitioners can be modelled in a typology of six postures between which some oscillate.