Class notes
Sociology SOCL1016 MBBCH I Week 11
- Institution
- University Of The Witwatersrand (wits)
Week 11 of SOCL1016 MBBCH 1 Notes for University of Witwatersrand
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Sociology Week 11Key concepts to focus on:
- Phases of allopathic healthcare
- De-re medicalisation
- Pharmaceuticalisation
- Medical bias
- Medical power
- Medical imperialism
- Lay people/perspective
- Competence gap
- Expert patients
- Medicalisation thesis
- Iatrogenesis
Medicalisation
Medicalization or medicalisation (see spelling differences) is the process by which human
conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions, and thus
become the subject of medical study, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment.
A process through which previously non-medical aspects of Life or aspects of the human
condition come to be seen in medical terms & treated as illnesses or disorders
When everyday life comes under medical dominion, influence and supervision, and ‘disease’
and ‘health’ take on different meanings.
E.g., Reproductive health, homosexuality, anxiety and depression, aging, healthism, etc
Examples of medicalized disorders include menopause, alcoholism, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anorexia, infertility,
sleep disorders, and erectile dysfunction (ED)
Social phenomena previously within, understood, and engaged by society often according to
the norms, values, and the practices of the day, increasingly became under medical
jurisdiction (authority), governed, and understood by medical knowledge, with its attendant
social, cultural, economic, norms, values, practices, and forces.
However, it is important to know that medicalization itself is complex & dynamic as a process,
involving an array of social actors.
, Phases of Allopathic Medicine
Bedside Medicine Medicine as pain relief and palliative care
- Yet to have efficacious treatments
- Improvements in health due to improvements in living
standards, sanitation & better nutrition
Hospital Medicine Ascendency of biomedicine, development of anatomy &
physiology and the establishment of the profession
- Better ability to understand and intervene in human ill
health (primary & secondary healthcare)
Laboratory Medicine Development and improved efficacy of pharmaceutics
Scientific medicine - characterized by further advancements in
molecular and genetic research through laboratory, technical and
digital health
- Increasing scope to intervene in chronic and rare and
unusual ill health
Pharmaceuticalisation Pharmaceuticalisation – debates whether this is a part / extension
of medicalization
- ‘a pill for every ill’ or “a disease for every pill”
De/re-medicalization Changes that occur as disease / health moves out and back into the
medical jurisdiction
The context within which medicalisation occurred and its effects
Modernism: The thinking that only science & rationality could solve all problems
The 3Cs: Capitalism, Colonialism and Christianity
- Historically medicine has been used to support political projects, ideologies, and abuses
(often required to provide ‘evidence’)
- ‘So-called Medical science’ was used to support racism, sexism and to uphold the status
quo and numerous inequalities
- Across 20th century Europe & Nazi Germany, in and during pre-civil rights USA & in
Apartheid South Africa, etc.
Criticism
MEDICAL BIAS: (explicit / implicit) attitudes, thoughts and feelings that impact on the
provision, type, and quality of care (or withholding of care)
MEDICAL POWER: power exerted by the medical profession over individuals and society
(benign / constructive / problematic) healthcare across the world (such as the medicine-
industrial-complex) and associated
MEDICAL IMPERIALISM: includes the expansion and dominance of allopathic healthcare
across the world (such as the medicine-industrial-complex) and associated implications for
traditional /complementary or alternative health care practices.
IATROGENESIS: Negative outcomes/damage associated with the medical profession:
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