Medicalization and Social Control

Ideology, legitimation, a little feminism, a lot of sociology, deviants, nazis, aging, alcoholism, PTSD, ADD, menopause, PMS, Alzheimer's, children/spouse abuse, childbirth, disabilities, demedicalization and a whole lot of important culture and medicine questions.

Here's the link. Download it if you so wish, it looks like it's a little hard to read on the webs.

Medicalization and Social Control (<- pdf) - Peter Conrad (<-wiki link)

This is a reading from my GWSS3203W Blood, Bodies and Science where in that class we deal with nearly the same problems and issues we do in this class. Not the easiest read but it has a lot to it, illustrating the complexity of medicalization and it's link with social control. It's thankfully has more food for thought other than writing medicalization off as a cultural construction.

I may post my response paper that I wrote about it later, if anyone is curious.