HLTHAGE 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Environmental Factor, Medicalization
3 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Process by which conditions and behaviours come to be defined as a medical problem . Medicalization critiques stem from 1970s, recognition that objective and value-free science utilized to make judgements on acceptable / unacceptable and desirable / undesirable behaviours. We define aging as ot as a natural process, but an illness that we need to fight back against. Menopause = a thing we have to deal with, hormone treatment. Medicalization extends from deviant behaviours (gambling, cult membership) to natural processes (eating, sleep). Shift from sin to criminal badness to illness. Geneticizense - genetics as a way to make sense of complaints, difficulties, and deviance. Pharmaceutical companies - a pill for every ill . Pharmaceuticalization the transformation of human conditions, capacities, or capabilities into pharmaceutical matters of treatment or enhancement. Importance of patient organizations and patient lobby group. Turns people into objects of sympathy / pity. Less punitive than criminalization of behaviour / still stigmatizing.
