medicalisation
Making conditions clinical
Medicalisation is the process by which ordinary human conditions or behaviors come to be defined and treated as medical problems.
Childbirth, aging, grief, shyness, and inattention have all undergone medicalisation—reframed as conditions requiring medical intervention rather than natural aspects of life.
Critics argue medicalisation pathologizes normal experience and expands pharmaceutical markets; defenders say it brings relief to genuine suffering.
Also spelled medicalization.
Finding harmless conditions unnecessarily
- disease mongeringPromoting dubious diagnoses for profit
- overprescriptionExcessive medication ordering
- pathologizationFraming as illness
- labelingAssigning identifying markers
Prominent French family name
- ConradMale given name
- devianceDeparture from accepted standards
- normalizationAdjusting to a standard
- biopoliticsGovernance of living populations
Infant's emergence from womb
- menopauseEnd of fertility
- agingGrowing older over time
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- shynessTendency toward social timidity
sexuality · obesity · infertility · addiction · ADHD · anxiety · insomnia · baldness
Identification of illness
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- labelingAssigning identifying markers
- screeningEvaluative selection process
- risk assessmentEvaluating likelihood of harm
overdiagnosis
Finding harmless conditions unnecessarily
- disease mongeringPromoting dubious diagnoses for profit
- overprescriptionExcessive medication ordering
- pathologizationFraming as illness
Foucault
Prominent French family name
- ConradMale given name
- devianceDeparture from accepted standards
- normalizationAdjusting to a standard
childbirth
Infant's emergence from womb
shyness · sexuality · obesity · infertility · addiction · ADHD · anxiety · insomnia · baldness · erectile dysfunction
diagnosis
Identification of illness
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- labelingAssigning identifying markers
- screeningEvaluative selection process
medicalisationself-care
Maintaining personal wellbeing
watchful waiting · non-intervention · benign neglect · folk medicine · self-management
medicalisationpatient autonomy
Right to decide treatment
bodily autonomy · self-determination · empowerment · anti-psychiatry · decentralisation
remedy, medicine, medical, medication, medic, medicinal, remedial, medicate, medicated