Medicalization

Lore & Background

The concept of medicalization was devised by sociologists in the 1970s, notably by Irving Zola, Peter Conrad, and Thomas Szasz. They viewed medicalization as a form of social control in which medical authority expanded into everyday existence, rejecting it in the name of liberation. Conrad's 1973 article 'The discovery of hyperkinesis' exemplified this critique, addressing what is now called ADHD. These sociologists argued that medical authorities had always functioned as agents of social control, but increasingly sophisticated technology, especially 'psychotechnology,' extended medicalization's potential reach.

Ivan Illich, in his 1975 book 'Limits to medicine: Medical nemesis,' argued that the medical profession harms people through iatrogenesis, occurring on three levels: clinical (side effects worse than the original condition), social (making the public docile and reliant on medicine), and structural (medicalizing aging and dying). The concept dovetailed with 1970s feminism, as critics like Ehrenreich and English argued that women's bodies were being medicalized by the predominantly male profession, with menstruation and pregnancy seen as medical problems. Marxists like Vicente Navarro linked medicalization to oppressive capitalism, arguing that medicine disguised underlying causes of disease such as social inequality.

Tiago Correia (2017) offered an alternative perspective, arguing that medicalization needs to be detached from biomedicine to overcome criticism. He focused on medicine's common traits across time and space, viewing medicalization and social control as distinct analytical dimensions that may or may not overlap. He contended that 'making things medical' must include all forms of medical knowledge globally, not just those linked to established biomedical professions.

Reader's Guide

Medicalization remains a central concept in sociological debates about health, power, and social control. Its significance lies in how it frames human conditions—from sexuality and gender to psychiatry—as medical problems requiring intervention, often with profound implications for self-identity and life decisions. The concept has been used to critique the expansion of medical authority into everyday life, as seen in the medicalization of homosexuality, erectile dysfunction, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Critics argue that medicalization can lead to biological reductionism, ignoring sociocultural factors, and can serve as a form of social control, as in psychiatry's historical role in pathologizing deviance. However, appropriate medicalization may also be viewed as a benefit, improving quality of life through treatment. The legacy of medicalization theory includes ongoing debates about the role of professionals, patients, and corporations, and the challenge of determining what medical knowledge is present and how it is used to medicalize behaviors and symptoms across different societies.

Did You Know?

• The term medicalization entered sociology literature in the 1970s through works of Irving Zola, Peter Conrad, and Thomas Szasz.
• Ivan Illich argued that medicalization causes iatrogenesis on three levels: clinical, social, and structural.
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic allegedly caused a 'profound re-medicalization of sexuality' from the 1980s.
• Benjamin Rush, father of American psychiatry, claimed Black people had black skin due to hereditary leprosy and considered vitiligo a 'spontaneous cure'.