< Back to previous page

Project

Diagnosing Society: On the Pathogenicity and Medicalization of Social Norms.

Despite its common usage, the concept of medicalization remains ambiguous. Sometimes it refers to providing medical treatment, other times it refers to labelling a condition a disease. These are clearly different practices. While pregnancy and baldness are treated medically, they are not pathologies. While alcoholism tends to be pathologized, it is unclear whether it is advisable to treat it medically. Given these differences, we need to better distinguish medicalization and pathologization so as to provide a more balanced assessment of these practices. Furthermore, in medicalization literature very little attention is given to how patients experience being pathologized or medicalized and how this is colored by the norms of their society. As such experiences are not always negative, the implications of this also need to be considered. To advance this assessment, we need to map out exactly how these practices relate to social norms. In this project, then, I will research whether social norms contribute to medicalization or pathologization, and, if so, what the consequences are. I will also scrutinize what it would mean to medicalize or pathologize social norms. To address these issues, I will provide an analysis of these concepts and look into the empirical research regarding how norms can become harmful when leading to a pathological desire to conform to them.

Date:1 Oct 2014 →  10 Jan 2018
Keywords:Medicalization, Pathogenicity
Disciplines:Theory and methodology of philosophy, Philosophy, Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified