Medicalization is “a process by which nonmedical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illness and disorders” (Conrad 2007:4).
Childbirth, ADHD, infertility, menopause, and obesity are a few examples of processes that have been medicalized.
Talcott Parsons: The “Sick Role”
The sick role, as conceptualized by Talcott Parsons, outlines the expected rights and obligations of people who are sick in our society.
According to Parsons, the sick person is exempt from normal social obligations and is not held responsible for being sick, but he or she is obligated to try to get well and to seek professional attention and cooperate with the medical community.
Medical Information on the Internet: Contested Syndromes and Medicalization
The internet has provided widespread access to medical information; it is generally understood that health-related information is second only to pornography as a topic searched for on the internet. This access arguably facilitates the avoidance of health care professionals by providing access to information (Shilling 2002:629).
The internet also facilitates the creation of communities revolving around certain conditions, especially contested conditions seeking to earn medical attention, such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. These groups are attempting to medicalize their conditions.
Demedicalization: Reversing Medicalization
In contrast to the medicalization of contested syndromes, online pro-ana communities often attempt to demedicalize anorexia and bulimia. Pro-ana communities reject the sick role either by viewing their eating disorder as a lifestyle rather than a disease or by conspiring to avoid medical treatment through safely managing their eating disorder.
Demedicalization, the process by which a condition or life process under medical jurisdiction is reconsidered as no longer a medical problem and no longer requiring medical personnel, is far less common than medicalization.
Two prominent examples of demedicalization are homosexuality and masturbation.
The Demedicalization of Homosexuality
Homosexuality has been considered morally deviant for thousands of years. It became criminal in the 16th century; by the 19th century, it was considered an illness.
This was challenged by several physicians who perceived homosexuality as a normal variation, and by a growing movement attempting to define homosexuality as a lifestyle or personal choice (Conrad and Schneider 1992: 211-213).
Interestingly, as homosexuality is viewed less and less as a disease, the original perception of homosexuality as a sin has returned. This perception still exists in Western culture.
The Demedicalization of Masturbation
Masturbation was first considered a sin, and then a moral weakness. It was redefined as an illness during the Victorian era.
Both the Kinsey Report finding that over ninety percent of men masturbated and the work of sexologists Masters and Johnson have contributed to a growing perception of masturbation as healthy and normal (Conrad 2007: 97).
Related Articles
Sources:Conrad, Peter. 2007. The Medicalization of Society. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Conrad, Peter and Joseph W. Schneider. 1992. Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Shilling, Chris. 2002. “Culture, the ‘sick role’ and the consumption of health.” British Journal of Sociology 53 (4): 621-638.
Rebekah Richards - Rebekah Richards has published fiction and nonfiction in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Brandeis Law Journal, Where the Children Play, ...
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