Medicalization In Health Care

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Sherine, you pose a great question. As mentioned by Barker, the definition of a disease may seem like a straightforward question, but the response is very complex. In my opinion, a disease is an affliction that negatively affects a living being. A disease can affect the host physically or mentally. A disease can also be asymptomatic, while still present.

The medicalization of contested illnesses does have beneficial contributions to the medical field and the individual. From experience, it is difficult when you know there is something wrong but you do not have a diagnosis. It can be somewhat refreshing to receive a medical diagnosis. Once an illness is medically diagnosed, doctors can appropriately treat the disease if it can be treated. …show more content…
Doctors may believe that that the person is pretending or exaggerating about their discomfort. The person may also be stigmatized in society. For example, drug addiction and gambling are behaviors that are looked down upon in society. The individuals who struggle with these addictions are unable to stop, and some may not receive the support they need from family. However, when addiction is categorized, as an illness, it is taken more seriously, and treatment becomes available. However, when a behavior such as addiction is medicalized individuals may use their diagnosis as a crutch to garner support.

There are many adverse effects of medicalization. Homosexuality was once medicalized. When a natural feeling or behavior such as homosexuality becomes medicalized, it is looked at as an anomaly. The person is considered as someone who needs to be "fixed." Humans are vastly different; when the medical community begins to medicalize natural human behavior, everyone becomes a patient. As Barker states, "through medicalization, natural human variation, normal experiences, routine complaints, and hypothetical scenarios become medical

Medicalization Pregnant Women

childbirth as dangerous and risky to women's health and to the health of her fetus is still a dominant ideology today. Medicalization has socialized people into perceiving pregnancy and birth as high-risk situations where pregnant women are expected to seek out professional medical advice requiring technological medical interventions and monitoring (Zardorozyj 1999). Women are socialized to believe that pregnancy is a condition deviating from normal health and that they need to rely on medical professionals…

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Medical Sociology: Concerned with the social, cultural, historical, political and economical dimensions of health and illness. Positivist theory: By August Comp Basic tenets: Objective truth can be discovered only through scientific study.-Society operates by absolute laws or “social facts” that can be measured. Methods used: Quantitative Methods (Surveys, statistics, etc.).“Bird’s eye” view of social life. Seeks to answer “how many” or “how likely” questions. In Medical sociology: Concerned…

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In his last chapter, Karp states that his thesis can be explained by a theoretical equation; Medicalization + Disconnection + Postmodernitization = Personal Dislocation. With his equation, he explores the relationship each part of the equation has with each other and how they connect to cause depression. Karp states that depression is caused by “concatenation of social circumstance, individual temperament, and biochemistry” (Karp, 1996) Karp connects Depression to social factors such as culture,…

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Kassandra's Life Chapter Summary

personal experience. Kassandra's narrative touches upon the concept of medicalization, which refers to the process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical issues (Weiss & Copelton, n.d.). In the context of childbirth, medicalization can manifest in various ways, such as the routine use of medical interventions like induced labor or cesarean sections. Kassandra's experience highlights how medicalization shapes the childbirth process, influencing decisions about pain management…

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Canadian society was created by a colonial legacy that would affect many Indigenous communities and their health. The colonial legacy would create systemic racism and structural inequalities in healthcare, which are caused by assumptions that have been placed on Indigenous people for years. An assumption that is written about in this essay is alcoholism and homelessness and Indigenous people are neglected in healthcare facilities due to these assumptions. The theories of critical sociology can help…

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