Scribd
Upload
125 views

Lecture 4 - Medicalisation Thesis

Sociology for medical students

Uploaded by

Saajid Amra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
125 views

Lecture 4 - Medicalisation Thesis

Sociology for medical students

Uploaded by

Saajid Amra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 17

Medicalisation Thesis

Lecture Four: 2014 February 119


In today’s lecture
• Define medicalisation
• Critically discuss medicalisation
• Demonstrate the difference between
– medicalisation
– medicalisation thesis
– demedicalisation
Is this a society we are creating?
Think and Discuss
• At what point is shyness a medical condition?
• At what point are mood swings a medical
condition?
• At what point is pregnancy a medical
condition?
• At what point is deafness a medical condition?
What is medicalisation?
• A process by which social phenomena come to be seen
& treated as illness
• It means there is a social & cultural predominance of
medical authority
• Because medicalisation is a process, this implies a
complex & changing interaction of institutions, people
and relationships
• That means the definition and understanding of
medicalisation is itself dynamic & contested
Why do we call it a “thesis”

• Because it is a set of interrelated propositions


stated or put forward for consideration,
discussion and justification against objections
• The medicalisation thesis is basically a set of
arguments that are critical of the medical
profession & it practice (NOT against
medicine or health science)
The changing concept of medicalisation
• Originally it (medicalisation) was understood as a process
whereby everyday life has come under medical dominion,
influence and supervision
• Examples are:
– Homosexuality (fc. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM) Included in1952 DMS – Romoved1968 DMS II as a
sociopathic personality)
– Pregnancy
– Ageing & menopause
– Some social deviations (e.g., poverty, excessive drinking & now addiction!)
• Basically some moral & social problems were classified as
sickness (medicalisation thesis of the 1970’s in Europe & USA)
Remember:
• Medicalisation is the expansion of the powers of the
medical profession
• Doctors could unilaterally determine what is constituted
illness and health
• However, there is a social context:
– Modernism: The thinking that only science & rationality can
solve all problems
– (In Nazi Germany the doctors’ authority was used to order
the killing of disabled people)
– Medicine used to support capitalism, colonialism, racism &
apartheid, & sexism
Thus, the medicalisation thesis argues:
• The medical profession’s unchallenged control
of medical knowledge
• Influencing society to be dependent on medical
intervention for social problems
• Individuals have been passive vis-à-vis medical
knowledge
Medicalization and financial conflicts of interest in the DSM

• “It has also been alleged that the way the categories of the DSM are structured, as well as the substantial
expansion of the number of categories, are representative of an increasing medicalization of human
nature, which may be attributed to disease mongering by psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies, the
power and influence of the latter having grown dramatically in recent decades.[55] Of the authors who
selected and defined the DSM-IV psychiatric disorders, roughly half had had financial relationships with
the pharmaceutical industry at one time, raising the prospect of a direct conflict of interest.[56] The same
article concludes that the connections between panel members and the drug companies were particularly
strong in those diagnoses where drugs are the first line of treatment, such as schizophrenia and mood
disorders, where 100% of the panel members had financial ties with the pharmaceutical industry.[56] In
2005, then American Psychiatric Association President Steven Sharfstein released a statement in which he
conceded that psychiatrists had "allowed the biopsychosocial model to become the bio-bio-bio model".[57]

• However, although the number of identified diagnoses has increased by more than 200% (from 106 in
DSM-I to 365 in DSM-IV-TR), psychiatrists such as Zimmerman and Spitzer argue it almost entirely
represents greater specification of the forms of pathology, thereby allowing better grouping of more
similar patients.[4] William Glasser, however, refers to the DSM as "phony diagnostic categories", arguing
that "it was developed to help psychiatrists – to help them make money".[58] In addition, the publishing of
the DSM, with tightly guarded copyrights, has in itself earned over $100 million for the American
Psychiatric Association.[59]”
Thus Medicalisation Thesis is Critical Of....
A critique of the medicalisation thesis
1. There is a structure-agency interaction in the
medicalisation process:
– Reproductive health
– Popular movements towards medicalisation
– Self-help groups
– Current medicalisation of some social deviances
(e.g., alcoholism, addiction, paedophilia)
Cont…
2. There are three levels of medicalisation:
a) The conceptual level (language scheme of
medicine)
b) The institutional level (medical profession with
other social institutions)
c) The interactional level (doctor-patient
interaction)
Implication for the critique
• There are degrees (extent) of medicalisation
• There is a process of de-medicalisation
• De-medicalisation (de-classification of some
conditions as diseases). For example:
– Homosexuality
– Disability
• Medicalisation and de-medicalisation are
dynamic, varied & culturally specific too.
Potential for Medicalisation
• We cannot separate society from medicalisation (i.e.,
they are a product of each other
– Healthism
– Self-care
– Palliative care
• Health rights are human rights (further cause for
medicalisation & de-medicalisation) For example;
– The right to health care
– The right to refuse health care
• Thus we are oscillating between medicalisation & de-
medicalisation
Summary
• Medicalisation is a contested process
• Medicalisation thesis is a set of arguments
against medicalisation.
• De-medicalisation is a process & practice of
devolving & curtailing medical dominance
• Medicalisation & de-medicalisation are dynamic
(i.e. change) & interact within a given social
context.
Test Your Knowledge
• What does the proliferation of Health Clubs
such as Virgin Active & Discovery Health with
their wellness programmes mean for
medicalisation thesis? Discuss.

You might also like