Chapter 24Medical Sociology and Health Psychologyby Debra Umberson, Kristi Williams, and Susan Sharp |
| This chapter reviews some of the significant issues related to the medicalization of human problems. As this research enters its third decade, this chapter examines several recent forays aimed at "reconsidering" medicalization and discusses how changes in society and medicine (e.g., managed care and increasing biotechnology) may place new constraints on medicalization. A large portion of the chapter focuses on the rise of the genetic paradigm and its potential impact on medicalization, with particular attention to mental illness. homosexuality, alcoholism, and other categories of deviance. This culminates with a discussion of the relationship between the processes of medicalization and geneticization. The final section raises some issues to consider as medicalization and genetics move into the twenty-first century. |