The Medicalization of Everyday Life: A Sociological Critique

Abstract

Social sciences shed new light on the medicalization of everyday life through medical technology.  Medicalization should not be treated as an old framework. It can be conceived as an analytical lens that shows how non-medical behavior and condition are increasingly construed and dealt in medical terms and with medical technologies. As a result of this reframing, everyday events and characteristics become “problems” to be solved medically. Explanation and analysis of medicalization involves a discussion of what is being medicalized, by what means, and with what social impacts. It acknowledges that not all medical transformations occur uniformly, and it cautions against the danger of simplifying complex processes to a single model. Grounding this research in the textures of everyday life is essential.  Medical technologies are now embedded in the everyday life spaces—classrooms, offices and public sites. To the extent that theories of medicalization fail to grasp the fluidity of subject-object and the changing nature of power, knowledge and institutional authority, they risk obsolescence. The term of medicalization often misses the cultural, linguistic, and structural forces that underpin this growth while capturing the increasing dominance of medical frameworks. Medicalization controls how futures are envisioned, how risks are assessed and how legitimacy is given.