Since this blog is about medicalisation, it is necessary to describe what, exactly, medicalisation is. The definition of the term is relatively simple, so do not let the verbose or ornate scholarship on the topic dissuade you! Medicalisation is to 'make medical', as seminal medical sociologist Peter Conrad once said. Essentially, it is the process in which we transform non-medical conditions into medical conditions, usually as diseases or disorders. A more nuanced - but nevertheless similar - definition sees medicalisation as the process in which we collectively identify a human activity, socially desired as problematic or debilitating, and bring it within the medical purview for diagnosis, treatment, prevention, prognosis, and so on.
So, forget the jargon, forget the formalities, there is your concise, accurate summation of the term. Now, why we medicalise, why we discern certain human behaviours as problematic and others as acceptable, and why view medicine as a respiratory of truth are the more complex and challenging questions that will try to be answered on this blog. I just hope you'll take the journey with me. But, for now, let's hope we're all on the same page on what medicalisation means. Because, really, it is a deceptively simple concept.
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