Izvorni znanstveni članak
On Causes and Consequences of the Medicalization of Life and Society: Analytical / Critical Discourse
Živka Juričić
; Farmaceutsko-biokemijski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Marica Malenica
Sažetak
In literal and value-neutral sense, the term “medicalization” is defined as “making or turning something into the object of medicine”. Th is term took on even wider value-neutral meanings in social sciences, and today these value-neutral meanings are experiencing their revival. The goal of this paper is to show how or, better yet, why the meanings of the term “medicalization” changed, as well as discuss its possibilities and objectives. From the beginning, it was clear that medicalization was not simply used as a way to describe a
process, but as a term to be examined from a critical, social and theoretical position.
The main categorical axiomatic premise of this paper is that medicalization has multiple meanings and that it is a complex, structural, heteronomic and socio-cultural process, formed under the increasing pressure of social changes.
We begin our analytical/critical approach to medicalization with Plato’s theoretical reflections and continue with Nietzsche’s and Illich’s critical analyses. Further critical-theoretical discussion discursively links the following modalities of medicalization: “priest’s medicalization” (Nietzsche) and doctor’s medication, as well as self-medication or “relationless” medicalization.
By resolving the issues surrounding the necessary characterization of the process of medicalization itself, we create the foundations for a more consistent theory of medicalization, which aims to provide an answer to a crucial question: Does medicalization bring betterment or detriment to humans and, of course, the society as a whole?
Ključne riječi
medicalization; self-medication; levels of medicalization; demedicalization; iatrogenesis
Hrčak ID:
125459
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.7.2014.
Posjeta: 3.800 *