Social Movements Medicalization operates through social movements as well as doctors and health institutions Conrad 7 (Peter, PhD, Harry Copeland Professor of Social Sciences, Medicalization of Society: On “The the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, carlos The key to medicalization is definition. That is, a problem is defined in medical described using medical language, understood through the adoption of a medical framework, or with a “treated” medical intervention. While much writing, including my own, has been critical of medicalization, it is important to remember that medicalization describes a process. Thus, we can examine the medicalization of epilepsy, a disorder most people would agree is medical, as well as we can “really” examine the medicalization of alcoholism, ADHD, menopause, or erectile dysfunction. While literally means make medical,” and the analytical emphasis has been on “medicalize” “to overmedicalization and its consequences, assumptions of overmedicalization are not a given in the perspective. The main point in considering medicalization is that an entity that is regarded as an illness or disease is not ipso facto a medical problem; rather, it needs to become defined as one. While the medical profession often has first call on most maladies that can be related to the body and to a large degree the psyche (Zola, 1972 ), some active agents are necessary for most problems to become medicalized (Conrad, 1992 ; Conrad and Schneider, 1992). Many of the earliest studies assumed that physicians were the key to understanding medicalization. Illich ( 1976 ) used the catchy but misleading phrase imperialism.” It soon became clear, however, that medicalization was more “medical complicated than the annexation of new problems by doctors and the medical profession. In cases like alcoholism, medicalization was primarily accomplished by a social movement (Alcoholics Anonymous), and physicians were actually late adopters of the view of alcoholism as a disease (Conrad and Schneider, 1992 ). And even to this day, the medical profession or individual doctors may be only marginally involved with the management of alcoholism, and actual medical treatments are not requisite for medicalization (Conrad, 1992 ; Appleton, 1995 ).
Social Movements Medicalization operates through social movements as well as doctors and health institutions Conrad 7 (Peter, PhD, Harry Copeland Professor of Social Sciences, “The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, carlos The key to medicalization is definition. That is, a problem is defined in medical described using medical language, understood through the adoption of a medical framework, or “treated” with a medical intervention. While much writing, including my own, has been critical of medicalization, it is important to remember that medicalization describes a process. Thus, we can examine the medicalization of epilepsy, a disorder most people would agree is “really” medical, as well as we can examine the medicalization of alcoholism, ADHD, menopause, or erectile dysfunction. While “medicalize” literally means “to make medical,” and the analytical emphasis has been on overmedicalization and its consequences, assumptions of overmedicalization are not a given in the perspective. The main point in considering medicalization is that an entity that is regarded as an illness or disease is not ipso facto a medical problem; rather, it needs to become defined as one. While the medical profession often has first call on most maladies that can be related to the body and to a large degree the psyche (Zola, 1972 ), some active agents are necessary for most problems to become medicalized (Conrad, 1992 ; Conrad and Schneider, 1992). Many of the earliest studies assumed that physicians were the key to understanding medicalization. Illich ( 1976 ) used the catchy but misleading phrase “medical imperialism.” It soon became clear, however, that medicalization was more complicated than the annexation of new problems by doctors and the medical profession. In cases like alcoholism, medicalization was primarily accomplished by a social movement (Alcoholics Anonymous), and physicians were actually late adopters of the view of alcoholism as a disease (Conrad and Schneider, 1992 ). And even to this day, the medical profession or individual doctors may be only marginally involved with the management of alcoholism, and actual medical treatments are not requisite for medicalization (Conrad, 1992 ; Appleton, 1995 ).