Medicalization

This book examines the phenomenon of medicalization and the increasingly large, invasive, and coercive role of medicine in society. Medicine today impinges territory formerly left to families, parents, society, and social and economic policy. Expanding disease definitions and allowing ever-milder conditions to qualify for medicine, ‘disease creep’, influences public policy and social behavior. Medicalization redirects those experiencing stress, sadness, or distraction to medicine, and impacts how society defines health and wellness. Medicalization in the contexts of diet, lifestyle, education and athletics, growing old, public safety, and mental and physical health, are all explored. Medicalization has adverse consequences both in that it may demonize those who do not go along, and it offers a false promise to remedy non-medical problems with a simple pill.

The pharmaceutical industry profits from disease creep, and doctors are complicit in furthering a narrative that relies on medicine. Laws often support a medical approach to societal problems despite notable financial conflicts of interest.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Medicalization is a valuable addition to the literature on bioethics, law, health policy, social sciences, and political studies.